On an excursion to Musee de l’Homme Neantherthal, our class ventured into human history. When I say human, I’m referring to the hominid family, which encompasses several species within the homo genus from which our modern human lineage formed. Long ago, in early human evolution, we co-inhabited this planet with other species of hominids, including Neanderthals. Neanderthals only recently went extinct at around 35,000 years ago. Leaving behind skeletons, skull bones, and Lithic tools, Neanderthals have left scientists with enough information to piece together their 350,000 plus history on earth as well as insights to the known Neanderthal-Sapien encounters that occurred in our migration out of Africa (“Néandertal L’Expo,” 2018).
The exhibit displayed old hunting and cooking tools of these ancient humans, dwellings that have been attributed to Neanderthal tribes, simulations of their sounds and language, analysis of the Neanderthal brains based on fossil records, replications of the Neanderthal male and female, and hypothesises around the encounters that occurred between our own species and this extinct species. Interestingly enough, Neanderthal DNA was found in modern humans. When we encounter this species, genetic testing suggests that interbreeding definitely occurred. Genomic studies discovered that keratin filament genes in non-African humans display a high frequency of Neanderthal alleles. These findings suggest Neanderthal alleles may have improved our ability to adapt to the non-African regions. While some Neanderthal DNA may contribute to our global existence today, the study also found some Neanderthal alleles found in our DNA today can confer risk of disease. These disease include lupus, biliary cirrhosis, Crohn’s disease, optic-disk size, smoking behaviour, IL-18 levels and type 2 diabetes (Sankaraman et. al., 2014).
Not only were alleles of survival and disease given to us through our Neanderthal-Spaien hybridization, but also were alleles that impact our neubiology and neural functioning. These alleles contribute to skull shapes, with specificity to the occipital and parietal bones, as well as localization of the visual cortex and intraparietal suculus (Gregory et. al., 2017). While we no longer live alongside these humans, they were able to persist through their interactions with ancient sapiens and impact modern human DNA to this day .
Works Cited
Gregory, M., Kippenhan, J., Eisenberg, D., Kohn, P., Dickinson, D., & Mattay, V. et al. (2017). Neanderthal-Derived Genetic Variation Shapes Modern Human Cranium and Brain. Scientific Reports, 7(1). doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06587-0
Néandertal L’Expo. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.museedelhomme.fr/fr/visitez/agenda/exposition/neandertal-expo
Sankararaman, S., Mallick, S., Dannemann, M., Prüfer, K., Kelso, J., & Pääbo, S. et al. (2014). The genomic landscape of Neanderthal ancestry in present-day humans. Nature, 507(7492), 354-357. doi: 10.1038/nature12961
