Our closest relative: the Neanderthal man
The first modern humans, known as the Aurignacian culture, moved westward across Europe some 40,000 years ago. The European territory was then occupied, as far as humans ancestors concern, by the species known as the Neanderthal man or Neanderthals for short. They inhabited from Iberia and Britain to Israel and Uzbekistan. They had do so for about 400,000 years, but 10,000 years after encountering the Aurignacians they had practically disappeared. Their last refuge was the Iberian Peninsula, where now are Spain and Portugal.
What happened in this encounter between two cultures is still unknown. One hypothesis is that the Neanderthals were eradicated by the Aurignacians, who had superior arms. The Neanderthals were armed with old-style stone weapons that were much older than those of the Aurignacians. Another hypothesis is that both species interbred, and that some characteristics of the Neanderthals were incorporated to the genetic pool of the human race.
To answer this question and others related to the Neanderthals and their extinction, one method being attempted is the analysis (or “sequencing”) of DNA molecules taken from fossil bones. As it is known, DNA studies help to find the genetic relation between two people or two species. For example, they have demonstrated that the living species most similar to the man is the chimpanzee. However, the study of DNA samples taken from old bones was at a time discredited due to extravagant claims of having recovered DNA from dinosaurs dead millions of years ago.
Enhancements in the field have made scientists more confident in this type of studies, and recently an attempt was initiated with DNA extracted from a Neanderthal’s femur found in the Vindija Cave, in Croatia. Two teams, one at the United States and another at Germany, have worked independently and using different methods. At the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, used a method call ‘metagenomics,’ in which the fragments of genetic material are incorporated into bacteria that then copy the fragments. The other team, working at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, use the method known as direct sequencing.
While the work is still under course, results up to the moment confirm the difference between the human and the Neanderthal genomes. A rough draft of the full Neanderthal genome is expected to be produced over the next two years. This genome is expected to reveal many distinctive qualities of the Neanderthals, e.g., whether they spoke, the color of their hair and their skin. It has been advanced that the mating theory is now considered very much unlikely, although it cannot still be excluded.
The question about if the Neanderthals spoke or not could be solved looking at the form of a gene that is related to the development of language skills. The color of the hair and the skin can be deduced by examining genes involved in these somatic characteristics. However, even if they are our closest evolutionary relatives from which we diverge some 500,000 years ago, Neanderthals will continue to be something of a mystery until more extensive DNA sequencing is done.
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