http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/resea...nderthals/

Quote:Researchers: 130,000-year-old eagle talon necklace likely belonged to Neanderthals

Quote:But now, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE has revealed a suspected necklace of eagle talons that would have belonged to Neanderthals living 130,000 years ago in present-day Croatia.

Perhaps their names were Adam and Steve?

Oh, neanderthals are really ugly. They look much better when they are covered up in dirt and blood.

I'm actually not surprised, I have heard people suggesting before that Neanderthal's were more intelligent than we give them credit for.

We're talking about a species that survived in the cold, harsh pre-historic European climate for hundreds of thousands of years (probably migrating south during ice ages). It's not surprising at all that they were intelligent enough to do things prehistoric modern humans were also doing. Their upright stature also supports larger brains in the same way ours does.

All modern Europeans also have trace amounts of Neanderthal ancestry too, so they were genetically similar enough to our ancestors to breed with them.

I quite agree. Early man...no matter what designation you give them... survived in an environment which would kill most of us in a week.

Makes me wonder if we'll eventually find out that they did have a needle and eye type tool. If they're stringing jewelry together, why not clothes?

I think the most interesting thing about neanderthals isn't really what they made, but what they lacked that makes us different. Keep in mind they were around for 100,000 years longer than we've been around as a species and yet in all the extra time they had on us, never developed civilization. Why?

(March 13, 2015 at 6:39 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: I think the most interesting thing about neanderthals isn't really what they made, but what they lacked that makes us different. Keep in mind they were around for 100,000 years longer than we've been around as a species and yet in all the extra time they had on us, never developed civilization. Why?

It is strange, and saying "harsh climate" isn't really an answer either. Egypt's civilisation developed as an indirect response to the Sahara forming so "harsh climate" doesn't explain it.

I'd say maybe they were just slightly less intelligent than modern humans (*modern* meaning our species), intelligent enough that they could live like pre-agricultural modern humans could, but just not intelligent enough for agriculture, literacy and advanced engineering to catch on.

The discovery of agriculture is really what marks the beginning of human civilisation (in most cases, certainly with the Middle East, Europe and China). Maybe if the Neanderthals started farming they might still be here...

(March 13, 2015 at 6:39 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: I think the most interesting thing about neanderthals isn't really what they made, but what they lacked that makes us different. Keep in mind they were around for 100,000 years longer than we've been around as a species and yet in all the extra time they had on us, never developed civilization. Why?

Maybe they were smarter or luckier, than us?

Although the Neanderthals had a large brain, the also had overlarge sensory lobes, specifically visual and olfactory lobes. I do believe they had some elements of culture, but things like missing organized agriculture or staying with the same primitive design for their toolkits even as archaic H. Sapiens was designing more and better tools lead me to think that there's a kernel of truth to the stereotype we hold of them.

(March 12, 2015 at 10:24 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I quite agree. Early man...no matter what designation you give them... survived in an environment which would kill most of us in a week.

Their mere existence would kill a creatard in a minute.