Sapiens Archives - usatoday24

An archaeologist believes his mental rigidity was more lethal than the sapiens’ spears

February 17, 2026 by usatoday24

For decades, the million-dollar question in paleoanthropology has always been the same: how on earth do we Neanderthals disappeared? We have blamed climate changeto the lower cognitive capacity, to the diseases and even a violent genocide perpetrated by us, the Homo sapiens. However, the French paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak has put another theory much more uncomfortable on the table. The theory. Through his latest book, ‘The last neanderthal‘, and in recent statementsthe French paleoanthropologist has pointed out that the Neanderthals were not swept away by an external force, but rather suffered an internal collapse. A true “individual and social suicide” caused by their own cultural rigidity and their refusal to connect. The specimen. Slimak is not an armchair theorist, but has spent decades digging in Grotte Mandrin (France), a key site that has revolutionized what we know about the transition between Neanderthals and modern humans. Here the cornerstone of his argument is “Thorin”, a late Neanderthal whose remains were analyzed in a genomic study published in Cell Genomics. What was seen. In this specimen it was seen that, despite living about 42,000-50,000 years ago (relatively “close” to the end), Thorin’s lineage had been genetically isolated for 50,000 years. This is in addition to the fact that, although there were other Neanderthal populations just two weeks away, they did not mix. They lived in a genetic and social bubble for millennia without gene flow either with other Neanderthals or, of course, with the sapiens who were already around the area. Slimak interprets this isolation not as a physical impossibility, but as a cultural choice. Thorin’s Neanderthals, according to his reading, rejected interaction. A clash of values. Based on this isolation of Thorin and on the lithic technology found in Mandrin, which are very creative but poorly standardized tools, Slimak draws two opposing “mental spheres.” The first of them is the ‘sapiens model’, where vast and interconnected communities meant that, if one group failed, the entire network could be sustained thanks to the efficiency and homogenization. At the other extreme we have the ‘Neanderthal model’ where small, independent and highly creative groups existed, but fragmented. Simply put, each clan was a world where there was no interconnection. The metaphor of ‘suicide’. The author in this case is not referring to them taking their own lives individually, but rather to a collapse of their values. Upon encountering the social “machine” of the Sapiens, the Neanderthal worldview of isolated groups became unsustainable, since, according to Slimaksome groups “decided to become invisible” or their social structure simply imploded due to the efficiency of human networks. The scientific consensus. Although Slimak’s narrative is literary powerful, the current scientific consensus prefers less romantic and more mathematical explanations. Most paleoanthropologists do not see conscious “suicide,” but rather a structural disadvantage. Recent literature explains extinction through a combination of factors such as demographics. In this case, stochastic drift models show that, if you have very small and dispersed populations (like Neanderthals), a very slight disadvantage in the reproduction or survival rate is enough for the species to become extinct in a few thousand years. There is more. Coinciding with Slimak’s data, there are different investigations that accept that Sapiens They had broader social networks. This can allow for help in a major crisis, such as a local drought, where neighbors can help others move forward. In the case of Neanderthals, being isolated, as Thorin demonstrates, they were vulnerable to any ecological “bump.” In addition to all this, we cannot forget about endogamy. Here a genetic analysis confirms that inbreeding weakened Neanderthals, reducing their fertility and biological resistance, without the need to invoke psychological factors. Something that also anticipated his complete disappearance from this planet. Images | 12019 In Xataka | A 4,000-kilometer “hybrid zone” in the heart of Europe: what we know about Neanderthals has just changed

All the skulls of the great apes were equally large. Until homo sapiens got fifth

October 26, 2025 by usatoday24

Talk about the human evolution is talking about a gigantic puzzle of which we have completed a large percentage, but whose last pieces resist us. There are many who continue trying to put these pieces together, and each new fossil studied brings us one step closer to the goal… or to rethink everything. One of those questions was at what rate the hominid brain evolved compared to that of the great apes, and the conclusion of a new study It has been devastating. Double. The hypothesis. The researchers at University College London, led by the Spanish Aída Gómez-Robles, started from a well-known premise: current humans have brains about three times larger than those of our closest ape relatives. And not only a different sizealso a noticeably different cranial structure. While most great apes have forward-projecting faces and small brains, humans have a flatter face with a larger head and rounded. The exception among the apes would be the gibbons and their heads were rounded, but with much smaller brains. The hypothesis they used was that these craniofacial adaptations evolved at an accelerated rate in humans thanks to the advantages of having a large brain, but also that social factors would have influenced this accelerated transformation. The study. The team examined virtual models of skulls of several species of modern primates. Thus, they analyzed the skulls of seven species of “great apes” including humans, two species of gorillastwo of orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobosas well as nine species of hylobatids or “lesser apes”, like the aforementioned gibbons. To do this, and using a technique that allows landmarks to be mapped onto anatomical structures, the researchers divided each skull into four sections. They analyzed the markers of the upper face, lower face, front and back of the head and compared between all the skulls analyzed. As a control group, they used hylobatids, since the species separated from hominids about 20 million years ago and they realized something: while gibbons are very similar to each other, hominids are very different from each other. And, among them, humans are the ones that evolved the most. At an astonishing speed, too. Face + neuroskull. The conclusion is that the human brain It evolved twice as fast as that of other hominids. Studies have already been done on additional factors driving accelerated changes in the brain and skull, but this study is the first to quantify the speed at which different species evolved. And, in addition to speed, what they found is that the human face transformed almost as quickly as the neuroskull. Brain expansion and facial flattening are related, but in other species there is not such a clear relationship between the evolution of the neurocranium and the face. Therefore, the team concluded that there was something external at play: a selective pressure caused because we started living in a society. “The face is the interface through which we interact with other people, so a possible explanation is that the selective pressure that caused its accelerated evolution is related to how we interact with each other in a social group,” exposes Gómez-Robles. Implications. This has not happened exclusively with humans. In the case of gorillas, the UCL team concluded that they had had the second-fastest rate of cranial evolution, probably also driven by social selection, which means a larger cranial crest is a symbol of higher social status. Now, as we said at the beginning, although the UCL study has demonstrated the evolution of human brain growth in relation to that of other similar species, there are still pieces of the great puzzle to put together. Future studies can examine other aspects to better understand what were those biological or social factors that drove the accelerated cranial development in humans. Images | UCL, Jacklee In Xataka | A 4.4 million-year-old ankle has rewritten human history: our first steps were not as we thought

A one million years of years suggests that the ‘homo sapiens’ does not come from Africa

October 7, 2025 by usatoday24

The history of human evolution is a fascinating puzzle that we lack many pieces. Each new fossil adds details, but occasionally, one of them does not fit the image we had. Or rather, It forces us to redraw the puzzle completely. This is what has just happened with the analysis of a skull of one million years old found in China, an investigation that, according to its authors, “totally changes” our understanding about when and how we arise, since I would question Our origin based in Africa. The study. Published In the prestigious Science magazinea team of scientists from China and the Museum of Natural History of the United Kingdom, a posture that the lineage of the Homo sapiens began to separate from their relatives, such as Neanderthalsat least half a million years before what was believed. And this is not a short time. The skull The protagonist of this story is the skull of Yunxian 2approximately one million years old, which was damaged. This caused that at first it was classified as the skull of a Homo erectus, One of our most primitive ancestors. But nothing is further from reality. Thanks to digital reconstruction technology, which included computerized and modeled tomographies, researchers were able to restore their original form. The analysis. Once the results were had, the surprises arrived. The skull did not belong to a Homo erectus, It showed a mixture of primitive and modern features. According to the study, Yunxian 2 is actually an early member of the clado Homo Longi, a sister species of Homo sapiens which also includes Mysterious denisovans. “Our research reveals that Yunxian 2 is not Homo erectusbut an early member of the clado Longi And it is linked to the Denisovanos, “said Professor Chris Stringer, co -director of the research.” This changes the thought a lot because he suggests that a million years ago, our ancestors had already been divided into different groups, which points to a much earlier and more complex human evolutionary division of what was believed, “he continued explaining. New temporal line. Until now, most genetic studies placed divergence between the lineage of the Homo sapiens and that of the Neanderthals about 600,000 years ago. However, this new analysis has changed everything and the dates remain as follows: Origin of the clado sapiens: It is now estimated at approximately 1.02 million years. Origin of the clado Longi: It is calculated in about 1.2 million years. Separation of both lineages: the study places the divergence between the lineage sapiens and the Longi 1.32 million years ago. This implies that three large groups of humans with large brains –Homo sapiens, Homo Longi (including denisovanos) and Neanderthals – could have coexist for almost a million years, much longer than was thought. Africa. Although the appearance of these fossils in the Asian continent can make us think that the origin of our ancestors is not in Africa as thought, we must have caution. Professor Stringer himself, one of the study authors, warns that there is not enough evidence to affirm that our species evolved in Asia instead of in Africa. The task that is now ahead is to select fossils with a similar age found in Africa and Europe and do the same study. That is why the scientific community is enthusiastic right now, but in a critical position. Dr. Aylwyn Scally, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Cambridge, points out that both genetic and fossil -based analysis have significant uncertainties, especially when establishing such old chronologies. “More evidence is needed to be safe,” he says. What is clear is that Yunxian 2’s skull has opened a new and exciting window to our past, demonstrating that the history of human evolution is much deeper and more complex than we imagined. Images | Ranjit Pradhan In Xataka | “This is not a penguin.”

We have new clues about the coexistence of Sapiens and Neanderthals. We have found them in Burgos

May 4, 2025 by usatoday24

The transit of a Europe dominated by Neanderthals (Homo Neanderthalensis) to a world in which our species, H. sapiensit was already the only human species is one of the most intriguing periods in our evolutionary history. We do not know how Neanderthals disappeared nor do we have many details about how they coexisted with our species. It is not necessary to go very far to find clues about how this coexistence was. Arlanzian culture. An international team, in which researchers from the universities of Valladolid, Burgos or Alcalá have participated, I discovered recently the clues of a prehistoric culture that had passed so far unnoticed. A culture they have called Arlanziense. This prehistoric culture has been baptized Ashí in reference to the Arlanza River, in whose Valley is Cueva Millán (located in the municipality of Hortigüela, Burgos). It is in this cave where the site that the Arlanzian culture has gone to the discovery can be found. The period associated with this prehistoric cultural tradition, explains the team responsible for the study, is associated with the transition between the Middle Paleolithic and the Superior, occurred between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago. This period is marked precisely by another very different transition, which saw the Neanderthals of the European continent disappear and the passage to the era of modern humans. Jump in time. Until now the clues we had placed this change in a much more recent period. Until now, the first cultures of the Upper Paleolithic (Auriñaciense and Châtelperroniense) dated a period between 43,000 and 40,000 years ago. The disappearance of the Musteriense culture, which we consider typical of the Middle Paleolithic, would have occurred between 45,000 and 37,000 years ago. However, the findings in the Cueva Millán force us to delay even more this transitional period between the Middle and Higher Paleolithic, after finding evidence of a culture with features of the Paleolithic medium before the Auriñaciense and Châtelperroniense: the findings would place it between 43,000 and 40,000 years ago. Unique combination The team responsible for the study explains that the artifacts found in the Cueva Millán site and the techniques associated with its production allow to “define” this new culture. A clulture, the Arlanziense, whose features highlight the “standardized production of small stone projectiles for hunting.” The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Scientific Reports. Doubts to be resolved. The transition from the Middle Paleolithic to the superior is traditionally marked by the arrival of the H. sapiens But the responsible team indicates that the story can be somewhat more complex. As indicated, the site cannot be associated with one or another species, which opens the door to the possibility that the Neanderthals had adopted techniques and objects of the sapiens. Although we do not have concrete evidence, this would be a plausible hypothesis in that case. Transition between species. The Millán Cueva Site and its Arlanzian culture could help us understand not only the transition but also the coexistence of humans and Neanderthals in the Iberian Peninsula. We know that coexistence between both species globally left A genetic imprint that still lasts in ours, and we have found vestiges of this hybridization in other places of the Peninsula. In Xataka | If the question is “when the Neanderthals and the Sapiens were crossed,” we now have the answer: about 47,000 years ago Image | University of Valladolid

We had many doubts about the relationship that Neanderthals and Sapiens had. The remains of a child are solving them

March 12, 2025 by usatoday24

Today is a fact recognized by the scientific community, which sapiens(Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals (H. Neanderthalensis) They lived in some contexts. Fruit of that coexistence, the procreation between both human species and, the result of that procreation, a Neandertal genetic legacy that still lasts, to a greater or less measure, in our genes. Fruit also of that hybridization were the remains of the one we know today as the Lapedo child. New dating. Now, a new study He has managed to stop These bone remains found almost 30 years ago in the Lapedo Valley, in the center-west of Portugal. According to this new dating, the child to whom these bones belonged would have lived about 28,000 years ago, millennia after the extinction of their Neanderthal ancestors. A key finding. The remains of the Lapedo child was found by chance in 1998 in the homonymous valley, near the Portuguese city of Leiria. At the time, the infant bone remains assumed an important test in favor of the hybridization hypothesis between Neanderthals and Sapiens. The bones showed their own features. Of the Neanderthals would have inherited attributes such as complexion. At the time when some experts DNA began to study Of the bone remains left behind by the Neanderthals, these remains showed us otherwise the results of the hybridization between our species and its evolutionary “cousins”. Studies that would also help confirm this hybridization. New information 27 years later. The new study estimates that the Lapedo child would have lived between 27,780 and 28,550 years ago. The dating had been elusive so far since the remains were surrounded by organic matter belonging to different periods. The team managed to save this obstacle focusing on an amino acid present in the collagen of human bones. “Being able to successfully date the child, we feel like a small piece of their history, which is a great privilege,” explained to Phys.org Bethan Linscott, co -author of the study. The details of the study have been published In an article In the magazine Science Advances. Rites … The child’s bones are only part of the history of the society in which he was born. And, as Linscott explains, these remains were found in a grave, they had not been left behind but had received some kind of funeral rite. The bone remains were found along with animal bones. Next to the child were discovered remains belonging to a deer, and about the child, remains belonging to a rabbit. A piece of coal that seemed to be part of a funeral rite was also discovered. The study of the different elements showed a somewhat different story. While rabbit’s remains were contemporary of the infant’s remains, both the deer bones and the piece of bastard would be prior to the era in which this lived. … and superstitions? Another important detail that reveals the Lopedo site is that this was abandoned for at least two millennia after the burial of the young man. This allows us to speculate with the reason for this migration and about its possible connection with the tomb found in this environment. In Xataka | 8,000 years ago a group of farmers crossed the Aegean Sea. Its trail can still be seen in the DNA in Media Europe Image | Jakub Hałun

For thousands of years, Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens tried to mate insistently. Genetics had another idea

March 1, 2025 by usatoday24

In 1856, while they worked in A limestone quarry Near Düsseldorf, two Italian workers found a basin full of bones. They thought they were the remains of a bear and approached a teacher of a nearby city, known for being a bone collector. They had no idea what they were about to provoke. The antecedent. When he saw the bones, Johann C. Fuhlrott He realized that they were not from a bear, he took the bones to the University of Bonn and, next to Hermann Schaaffhausethey communicated the finding to the world. No one took them very seriously. It was said that it was a Russian cosaco with rickets that persecuted Napoleon for Europe. Until almost a decade later, the Irish geologist William King He reached a revolutionary conclusion: we had not always been alone. But why are we now? With the discovery of Homo Neanderthalensis They opened many unknownsbut there is one that has been chasing us for almost 200 years: why did they disappear? How is it possible that such an old, so robust species, that had survived so many things disappeared without more? Why were we left alone? To all these years, scientists have given numerous hypotheses and theories. From Prehistoric genocides to A slow and agonized eclipse. However, Ludovic Slimak, researcher at the Center for Anthropobiology and Genomic of Touluse and one of the greatest international experts in Neanderthals, You have another idea. The forms of love (and what is not love). For Slimak, if we apply the knowledge of cultural anthropology to what Paleogenetics is telling us, the image is quite different. And, as in all traditional societies in which strong identities coexist, it looks like the different human communities exchanged women. From our perspective, mere expression is already a savage. But from the perspective of anthropology, those “family crossing” processes were basic to ensure stable alliances between different communities. And that, if we take into account that we are loads of DNA Neanderthal, it seems to be what happened. However, As Slimak points outthat “fusion” of lineages never came to occur. The question is why. A story (genetically) impossible. We know that Neanderthals and Sapiens crossed and They had offspring. But we also know that a significant part of it were sterile people unable to reproduce. That is, although the communities tried to lock these relationships and alliances based on miscegenation, the thing did not work. Searching. It’s curious, Slimak said in An interview for Livesciencethat “when you are looking for old DNA (40,000 to 45,000 years ago) all these sapiens early have recent DNA, and That is why we have (DNA Neanderthal) today. But when you arrive and try to extract DNA from the last Neanderthals, contemporaries of these first sapienslet’s say between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago there is not a single Neanderthal with DNA sapiens“ Curious and very possibly one of the keys that explain because the most numerically and genetically diverse population of Sapiens won the departure to the Neanderthals. That is, why we were alone. Image | SUCHOSCH In Xataka | If the question is “when the Neanderthals and the Sapiens were crossed,” we now have the answer: about 47,000 years ago In Xataka | The “ghost species” with which our ancestors were settled and disappeared without (almost) leave a trace *An earlier version of this article was published in February 2024

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