Kolbert begins the chapter by talking about neanderthal remains that were found in Das Neandertal, Germany as well as other Neanderthal remains throughout Europe and the Middle East. A few theories on the disappearance of this species are that homo sapiens killed them off, they died of environmental changes or that homo sapiens interbred with them. Kolbert than visits the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, where she meets with Svante Paabo, who pioneered paleogenetics. At first, Neanderthals were believed to be an uncivilized species, described as slouching and very hairy, however, later it was concluded that Neanderthals are extremely similar to modern humans, with evidence such as Neanderthal DNA being similar to human DNA. Adding on, Kolbert later dives deeper into the factors that differentiate a human from other species, for example, the main variable is intelligence and communicating to solve problems. Paabo also states that Neanderthals lacked certain qualities such as ambition, which is a driving quality in humans that enabled so much progression. He also explains how the species similar to humans, such as Denisovans, died out due to their low reproduction rates, and even predicts that modern-day species closely resembling humans such as apes and chimpanzees may also become extinct due to their reproduction rates. Lastly, Kolbert visits France where assembled Neanderthal remains are stored. While there, she makes the point that if humans with their superior qualities had not existed than Neanderthals would still be present in the modern day.
An APES theme that connects to this chapter is that humans alter natural systems and that they’ve had an impact on the environment for millions of years. For example, in the text, it states “In recent decades, it’s become increasingly clear that the Neanderthals; went the way of the Megatherium, the American mastodon, and the many other unfortunate megafaunas. In other words, as one researcher put it to me, “their bad luck was us.”(pg. 237). This quote shows that humans have continuously negatively affected species on earth without even knowing about it ever since they first appeared. Throughout history, humans have always played a pivotal role in impact the environment that they live in, there hasn't been proof of humans peacefully coinciding with another “dominant” species, without finding a way to exploit the species so that either human can remain superior in the region, or to simply use them as another resource. (Q) From how Kolbert describes humans in this chapter, as well as throughout the book, I was wondering whether or not humans would have survived this long as well as progressed to such great heights if it weren't for them exploiting other species? Though it should be frowned upon, maybe the key to humans being able to survive this far into the modern day is solely due to the expense of other species, and if it wasn't then humans would have also gone extinct long ago as well.
Image of a Neanderthal.
No comments:
Post a Comment