Neanderthals developed tools independently of humans

A recent study found that Neanderthals, an extinct member of the genus Homo, developed tools independently of humans. According to Julien Riel-Salvatore, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, this study discounts the theory that Neanderthal tool use originated from contact with humans and shows that they were more innovative than previously thought.

Riel-Salvatore found support for his paper by comparing Neanderthal artifacts at 42,000 year old sites in southern and central Italy with human artifacts from the same time period. He found that the implements used by Neanderthals, which included ornaments, pigments and stone and bone tools, were unique compared to those used by humans in northern Italy.

While Neanderthals in southern Italy and humans in northern Italy developed separate but complex toolkits, the Neanderthals in central Italy were found to have used the same stone tools for 100,000 years.

According to an interview with Science Daily, Riel-Salvatore said that this is evidence that the human and Neanderthal communities developed their tools separately, as any tools introduced by humans should have appeared in central Italy first.

Scientists have long debated about the capabilities and fate of Neanderthals, a type of hominid that went extinct around 30,000 years ago. Human and Neanderthal DNA is 99.5 to 99.9 percent identical, making them more closely related to us than any other species. There is still debate about whether Neanderthals should be classified as a subspecies of humans or as a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis.

Neanderthals had larger brains than modern humans’, more robust bodies, and shared many skills with humans, such as controlling fire, making weapons, and burying the dead.

Also, recent studies showed that Neanderthal communication abilities and intelligence were comparable to that of early H. sapiens. While this debunked the myth that Neanderthals died out due to humans being more intelligent, the mystery behind their extinction remains unsolved.

Neanderthals vanished from the fossil record after co-existing with humans for as long as 10,000 years in Europe. Possible theories for their disappearance include competition with humans and absorption by H. sapiens through interbreeding. Evidence for the former theory is that Neanderthals had shorter and stockier limbs, making running and walking less efficient. This would have given the comparatively more resilient humans an advantage in combat.

On the other hand, genetic evidence presented earlier this year suggested that interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals occurred in the Middle East, resulting in the latter contributing to around one to four percent of the Eurasian genome. More evidence is needed before the factors leading to the Neanderthals’ disappearance can be pinpointed.

Nonetheless, Riel-Salvatore’s research is another clue regarding the ancestry of Neanderthals and their relation to modern day humans.