Wibbs wrote: » oh and they made the first throwing spears we know of.
Lars1916 wrote: » Didn't they invent the first weapons and the wheel?
ScumLord wrote: » I thought they couldn't throw spears effectively? Their shoulders didn't have the range of motion and that's why they were ambush predators and received a lot of physical damage over their lives because of the close proximity they had to their prey during hunts. Humans on the other hand used the Atlatl that allowed them to maintain distance from their prey. We also had the range of motion in our shoulders that allowed us to throw something.
Galwayguy35 wrote: » I think you are right about this, the Neanderthals went right up to what ever they wanted to kill and stabbed it with their spears instead of throwing them at the animal. Bearing in mind that many of the animals they hunted were a lot bigger than those around today it's no wonder they needed to be strong and tough.
SEPT 23 1989 wrote: » They had bigger brains than us
Wibbs wrote: » I don't buy the shoulder hypothesis myself. They found 400,000 year old wooden spears in a bog in Germany. They were designed for throwing and belonged to Homo heidelbergensis who were ancestral to Neandertals(and us in Africa) and they had the same shoulders so... Maybe the close in hunting came about, not from any physical impediment to throwing, but an environmental one? Neandertals had very big eyes. The biggest of any humans. They also had very large visual centers in the brain, so maybe they were adapting to hunting in low light conditions like deep forest? Spears are pretty useless if thrown in thick brush. Just as likely to hit a tree(and damage the tip) as to hit an animal. Throwing weapons are better in open landscape. Ambush hunting is a better bet in forest. Stab, retreat and wait for the animal to bleed out. I don't think this means they were tied to that environment though. They survived and thrived in very shifting environments for over 200,000 years so they were clearly an adaptable bunch o lads.
Da Shins Kelly wrote: » So if they were so adaptable and resourceful and intelligent why did they die out? I'm not asking to be awkward, just genuinely curious. I don't know anything about this kind of stuff!
Strawberry Fields wrote: » survival of the fittest. they are extinct.
Fighting Irish wrote: » lol i'd say they were a lot fitter than the majority of humans we see today
IamtheWalrus wrote: » If evolution is true why aren't there no humans that eat nothing but bananaz?
Galwayguy35 wrote: » So if new species of humans evolve every so ofton throughout history to replace the previous lot, then maybe in time we will also be replaced.
Ghandee wrote: » This thread may have been spotted by a Harvard professor OP!http://www.independent.ie/world-news/palaeolithic-park-harvard-professor-seeks-adventurous-woman-to-give-birth-to-neanderthal-3361191.html Any ladies from AH willing to help out?
ScumLord wrote: » The problem with that is humans travel too much. We're constantly mixing the races these days, unless something goes horribly wrong there won't be any opportunity for a group of humans to live in isolation long enough to start turning into anything different from the rest of the species. Maybe when we move into space we'll see groups of humans in isolation for long enough periods of time that would allow them to evolve in different directions. But even that seems unlikely. Humans will find a way to intermingle.
ScumLord wrote: » It's not really fair to compare them to modern humans instead of the humans that would have been around at the time. Modern humans are soft, the further back in time we go the harder humans get though, to the point they may have been vicious ****ers back when Neanderthals were around.
Galwayguy35 wrote: » Fair enough, but looking at it a different way doesn't every species die out eventually apart from insects. Maybe the human race will eventually die out as well.
RobbieTheRobber wrote: » In todays news from the Harvard professor "And Harvard University geneticist George M. Church, the scientist at the center of the viral vortex, says it was: Way too outlandish, and entirely untrue."http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/01/harvard_professor_blasts_web_rumor