Neanderthals died out 40,000 years ago, but their DNA has never been larger than it is today.

Neanderthals have served as a reflection of our own humanity ever since they were discovered in 1856. What we think we know about them has been shaped by our cultural trends, social norms, and scientific standards. Sick specimens were counted. Then our primitive subhuman cousins. Now no one doubts that they were advanced people.

neanderthal man It was very similar to us, we lived with them, often crossed paths. The Neanderthals died out, but we survived, flourished, and eventually took over the planet.

His brain was on average larger than ours.

Neanderthals originated over 400,000 years ago, probably from heidelberg man. They were very successful and spread from the Mediterranean to Siberia. They were very smart, their brains were on average larger than those of Homo sapiens.

They developed strategies for hunting big game, gathered plants, mushrooms, and shellfish, controlled fires for cooking, made elaborate tools, dressed in animal skins, made shell beads, and could carve symbols on cave walls. They cared for their young, old, and sick, built shelters to protect themselves, endured harsh winters and hot summers, and buried their dead.

Neanderthals met with our ancestors many times over tens of thousands of years. These two species lived on the European continent for at least 14,000 years. They even had sex.

death of a species

The most significant difference between Neanderthals and our species is that they became extinct about 40,000 years ago. The exact reason for his disappearance is still unknown to us, but it was probably the result of a combination of factors.

First, the climate of the last ice age was highly variable, going from cold to intense heat and back again, which put pressure on animal and plant food sources and meant that Neanderthals had to constantly adapt to environmental changes.

Secondly, there were never many Neanderthals, since the total population never exceeded tens of thousands of people.

They lived in small groups, from 5 to 15 individuals, compared to Homo sapiens which formed groups of up to 150 individuals. These small, isolated populations of Neanderthals may have become increasingly genetically unstable.

Thirdly, they had to compete with other predators, especially with groups of modern humans that appeared in Africa about 60,000 years ago. We believe that many Neanderthals may have been assimilated into larger groups. Homo sapiens.

Where are the tests?

The Neanderthals left us many footprints that we can explore tens of thousands of years later, many of which can be seen in a special exhibition we helped organize at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Over the past 150 years, we have been collecting fossil bones, stone and wooden tools, finding abandoned trinkets and jewelry, finding burial sites, and now we have matched their genome with ancient DNA. It seems that 99.7% of the DNA of Neanderthals and modern humans are identical and there is no doubt that they are our closest extinct relatives.

Perhaps most surprising is the evidence of interbreeding, which has left traces of Neanderthal DNA in people living today.

Many Europeans and Asians have between 1% and 4% Neanderthal DNA. The only modern humans without Neanderthal genetic traces are sub-Saharan African populations. Ironically, with the current world population of about 8 billion, this means there has never been more Neanderthal DNA on Earth.

Analyzing the Neanderthal genome helps us better understand their appearance, as there is evidence that some of them developed pale skin and red hair long before that. Homo sapiens. Many genes shared by Neanderthals and modern humans are linked to everything from the ability to taste bitter to the ability to speak.

We have also expanded our knowledge of human health. For example, a piece of Neanderthal DNA that may have been useful to humans tens of thousands of years ago now appears to cause problems when combined with modern Western lifestyles.

There are links to alcoholism, obesity, allergies, blood clotting, and depression. Scientists recently suggested that a genetic variant of an ancient Neanderthal could increase the risk of serious complications from contracting COVID-19.

hold a mirror

Like dinosaurs, Neanderthals didn’t know what to expect. The difference is that the dinosaurs suddenly disappeared after a giant meteorite fell from space. The extinction of the Neanderthals occurred gradually. They eventually lost their world, the comfortable home that they had successfully occupied for hundreds of thousands of years and which slowly turned against them until mere existence became unbearable.

Neanderthals now have a different goal. We see ourselves reflected in them. They didn’t know what was happening to them and they had no choice but to continue down the path that eventually led to their disappearance. We, on the other hand, are painfully aware of our situation and the impact we have on this planet.

Human activity is changing the climate and leading us straight to the sixth mass extinction. We can think about the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into and do something about it.

If we don’t want to end up like Neanderthals, we’d better come together and work together for a more sustainable future. The extinction of the Neanderthals reminds us that we should never take our existence for granted.

Peter K. Kiergaard, professor of evolutionary history and director of the Danish Museum of Natural History, University of Copenhagen; Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science, University of California London, and Trine Kellberg Nielsen, Associate Professor of Archeology and Cultural Heritage Studies, University of Aarhus

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.

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