The Sixth Extinction: Chapter 12

     In Chapter 12, Kolbert talks about the neanderthal remains in Das Neandertal, Germany, that have been found in different parts of the world. Researchers argued that environmental changes wiped out the Neanderthals, while others claim that Homo sapiens killed them. Kolbert visits Svante Pääbo, who’s been studying evolutionary genetics. At first, scientists thought that the remains belonged to regular humans. However, specialists pointed out that the bones were bowed in unusual areas. As decades passed, more Neanderthal bones surfaced, and researchers noticed that the skeletons had unusually large skulls and unusually bowed femur bones. Scientists decided that Neanderthals didn’t walk with a slouch, weren’t hairy, and, looked like modern humans. Paabo came up with the Out of Africa theory where he claimed that the Neanderthals were in Eurasia when homo sapiens came out of Africa based on some DNA matching. However, all living humans would have to have the same genetic overlap with Neanderthals. Scientists then come up with the leaky-replacement hypothesis which states that early human beings interbred with Neanderthals when they first encountered Neanderthals in Eurasia. Furthermore, Neanderthal DNA survived in human beings suggesting that half-human, half-Neanderthal children were cared for. Paabo found out that the humanoid species, Denisovans, likely interbred with humans, but went extinct because of their low reproductive rates, and the same is true with apes, because they’re not reproducing quickly. Kolbert then goes on to talk about the differences between humans and other primates, by saying that we engage in collective problem solving and we have the ability to read social cues.

     The theme that most resonated with this chapter is science is a method of learning more about the world. In the book it states, “In the 1960s, an American archaeologist named Ralph Solecki uncovered the remains of several Neanderthals in a cave in northern Iraq. One of them, known as Shanidar I, or Nandy for short, suffered a grievous head injury that had probably left him at least partially blind. His injuries had healed, which suggested that he must have been cared for by other members of his social group. Another Shanidar IV, had apparently been buried, and the results of a soil analysis from the grave site convinced Solecki that Shanidar IV had been interred with flowers. This he took as evidence of a deep Neanderthal spirituality.” (Pg. 243) (C) The scientists isolating the Neanderthals, and calling them savages made me connect it to APUSH, where the African Americans were called savages and were discriminated against severely just because of their skin color. Other than that I can also connect this to what I learned about in the summer regarding evolution. I learned that all species can be connected back to a common ancestor which is a bacterium, and as time passes, certain bacterium start to change and evolve, hence which is why neanderthals and humans are so different yet the same. I also learned that he discovery of DNA provides the proof for evolution. By comparing genomes of different living things and observing the changes in the coding of genes, scientists can figure out how closely different species are related to each other and identify how long ago a common ancestor lived, which is how the scientists were able to figure out the connection between the two species.

By: Mousumi Dhar