How Are Neanderthals Different From Homo Sapiens?

If you met a Neanderthal, the first issue you might detect is that your hominin cousin was a bit shorter than your ordinary human. Neanderthals were the two shorter and thicker than we are, so whilst you might conquer them on the basketball court, they could almost certainly out-arm-wrestle you.

The following issue you’d almost certainly detect is a wide and flaring nose with substantial nostrils. Some researchers have hypothesized this was an adaptation that allowed them to breathe cold air much more quickly and adapt to frigid European climates. Neanderthals also experienced protruding brows and weak chins, although their jaws appeared to be much more developed than ours.

Some thing you might not detect, although it is a significant difference concerning us and Neanderthals, is the quantity of their skull. Their brains were probable larger than ours, although it is not identified how that influenced their cognition.

Over and above bodily differences, it is tricky to say how Neanderthals differed from fashionable human beings. The clues we do have appear from their genome, which was sequenced completely in 2010. The ancient hominins shared about ninety nine.seven {d11068cee6a5c14bc1230e191cd2ec553067ecb641ed9b4e647acef6cc316fdd} of their genetic material with us — that means they were mainly human in this regard. How the rest differed is mostly unclear, although we do have some suggestions.

Neanderthals and human beings interbred various times, and we have received some Neanderthal DNA in our genomes. Researchers have tracked what some of people genes do, and it features a wide glimpse at some Neanderthal characteristics. For example, genes from Neanderthals relate to how our immune programs fight off pathogens, how our bodies use keratin and our feeling of smell.


This story is component of an ongoing collection discovering inquiries about human origins. Go through much more about ancient human beings: