Chapter 12 by Andrea Guinanzaca

In chapter 12, we learn about  Pääbo and his studies. But before we go into that, back in the mid-19th century, workers stumbled upon the first Neanderthal remains. Since then, scientists found Neanderthal remains in different parts of Europe and the Middle East. There are several explanations as to why Neanderthals wiped out. Some researchers argue that environmental changes wiped out the Neanderthals, while others claim that Homo sapiens killed them. Pääbo, a pioneered “paleogenetics”,  studies ancient genetics with the hope that, in the near future, humans will succeed in mapping the Neanderthal genome so that they can compare Homo sapiens and Neanderthal genetics side-by-side.

In the coming decades, more Neanderthal bones appeared, and researchers noticed that the skeletons had unusual large skulls and unusual bowed femur bones. In the early 20th century, scientists portrayed Neanderthals as hairy, brutish creatures who could barely stand up straight but this was taken as evidence of their uncivilized nature. However, after World War II, anatomists re-examined Neanderthal remains and made some striking conclusions. They decided that Neanderthals didn’t walk with a slouch, weren’t hairy, and even looked striking like modern humans. There is even some evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead and planted flowers on the graves. DNA is often considered to be a “blueprint” for the structure of a human being. Most of those humans’ descendants migrated to the Middle East, followed by Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. This suggests that Neanderthals were already living in Eurasia when the ancestors of modern humans traveled “Out of Africa”.

The question here is “what makes humans human?” One might assume that the deciding factor is intelligence—but, of course, apes show many signs of intelligence. Perhaps one part of what makes humans human is the ability to engage in “collective problem-solving”. Neanderthal remains to betray signs of serious injuries, suggesting, perhaps, the “rigors of hunting” in Neanderthal society. Interestingly, there is evidence that Neanderthals were seriously injured but then survived their injuries, implying that they took care of each other.

Pääbo has pioneered an intriguing theory about Neanderthals. It’s possible that the Denisovans went extinct because of their low reproductive rates, and the same is true of humans’ “next-closest kin,”  apes. In the 21st century, apes are going extinct because they’re not reproducing quickly enough. Kolbert drives to La Ferrassie, a French site where the largest recorded assemblages of Neanderthal remains were discovered 100 years ago. As she watches a team of paleontologists at work, she imagines what life had been like for Neanderthals. Indeed, no remains of Neanderthal art or adornment have yet been discovered. In conclusion, Kolbert believes that if humans had never existed, Neanderthals would still be around.