Neanderthals vs Sapiens – what really happened?

Is it possible that infections disease, so sadly in the headlines once again, played a big part in the Neanderthal extinction?

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Pandemics are not new

For most of us, our last pandemic was novel. Yet, although it was the first pandemic in the age of global mass travel and the internet, pandemics have been a constant feature of human history since we started congregating in settlements, spreading our reach across the planet and domesticating animals

While it is politically convenient for some to consider the Sars Cov-2 pandemic a simple, or even malevolent laboratory creation, which would otherwise not have happened, in fact pandemics have always been a defining feature of our history and interaction with the living world of which we are but a small if dominant part.

Don’t call me Neanderthal! Or please do?

Perhaps the first instance of this critical driver of our history is how Homo Sapiens replaced all the other Homo species we encountered, including most notably but not only, the Neanderthals. Nowadays being called “A bit Neanderthal” is considered somewhat of an insult, along the lines of being stupid, unintelligent, or brutal, but evidence is revealing this to be far from the truth.

In the past, as now in some quarters, our standpoint was biased by religious dogma – that whatever did happen, it was because Sapiens are god’s chosen species; that we are thus better, cleverer, more able, sophisticated, or whatever self-aggrandising reason we tend to seek for our evolutionary success. It also fed into the “Survival of the Fittest” trope those who consider themselves superior like to use. 

Science to the rescue

The science of genetics is changing all that. It seems it’s time for us Sapiens to eat just a little nutritious humble pie. Before delving into that, advances in archaeology also offer compelling reasons for us being more modest as a species.

For one thing, Neanderthals had bigger brains than us, and while size isn’t everything, it does matter.  For another, they had been around for 400,000 years, considerably longer than Sapiens and only died out 28,000 years ago, their last remains being found in Gorham’s cave in Gibraltar. 

Increasing evidence shows they led at least as sophisticated lives as we did at that time. This included using stone tools, javelins, mastering fire, sailing, cooking and even smoking plants! DNA analysis of dental plaque shows they used medicine in terms of aspirin from poplar bark and penicillin residues from the penicillin mould. Fractures seemed, according to finds of healed bones, were well managed. Evidence of infections are scant, but interestingly some Neanderthal genes protects againstCOVID19, others make it worse.

DNA analysis also reveals, unsurprisingly given their dispersed communities of 20-30 individuals, considerable inbreeding, though this is also likely in small groups of hunting gathering Sapiens. This didn’t seem to harm Neanderthal longevity.

Care in the Cave

That they were humane is evidenced by fossil records of a Neanderthal child with Downs who died at the age of six, having been cared for till then and also of one of the first Neanderthals skeletons showing severe arthritis and postural deformity in an individual who would have needed significant care and support.

Did we pinch their cave art?

Sophisticated dating techniques have revealed that many cave paintings considered to be drawn by early Sapiens, have now been shown to be the work of Neanderthals. Indeed, it is likely that the explosion of art and culture about 40,000 years ago was largely due to Neanderthals. So, they were likely to be at least as clever as us.

Dating a Neanderthal

There was also much interaction and interbreeding, as testified to by the persistence of Neanderthal DNA in modern Sapiens. We are both Homo species, so share 97-99% of our DNA from our common ancestor Homo Heidelbergensis. Sapiens that migrated from Africa 70,000 years ago now have 1-3% of our genes inherited from Neanderthals. Modern Africans have ten times less. 

Indeed, inter-species co-operation was more likely than conflict and war in a sparsely populated, resource rich landscape with no concept of ownership and the two species co-existed in Europe for millennia. 

So, the myth that Neanderthals disappeared due to our superiority is untrue – so why did they perish?

Might it be that infectious diseases were likely behind their extinction?

Compare the Neanderthals who lived in Europe for 300,000 years since their own departure from Africa. In Europe, there was far lower range of species than that of Sapiens living in hotter Africa teeming with life in their rainforests and savannas. Spillover disease from wildlife would have thus been more common in Sapiens and led to immunity to a wider range of pathogens than European Neanderthals. This was termed Sapiens ‘African advantage’.

When disparate populations of people initially mix disaster usually happens. More recent Europeans invading the rest of the world had developed immunity to a range of infectious disease largely derived from spillover from their own domestic animals. This conferred a ‘European advantage’. When Europeans colonised continents, our viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites went with us with devastating consequences for non-immune native populations around the world who were rapidly depopulated. 

The exception to this is Malaria and Yellow Fever in the tropics which led to African being called the ‘White Man’s Grave’ and which protected Africa from European horrors until quinine was discovered to offer protection against malaria and the rape of Africa could begin.

Battle of the bugs

So, it is likely a battle of pathogens the Neanderthals lost. Our migration from Africa 54,000 years ago changed the world, resulting in the extinction of other Homo species and to our global domination as the only Homo species left standing. 

Evidence of infection with RNA viruses would be lacking as RNA doesn’t survive well, but perhaps DNA viruses such as herpes played a role. Evidence for this comes from analysis of the scant DNA available from remains of bacteria in Neanderthal teeth and comparing them to Sapiens.

Neanderthals were Human too.

So, the bottom line is that we were no cleverer than the Neanderthals. It seems increasingly likely that our bugs killed more of them than theirs killed us, and the difference was significant enough to spread through their populations and reduce their numbers to below that needed for survival. 

The origin of our belittling of Neanderthals lies in the racist religious fervour of Victorian times when it would have been impossible to question the ‘god-given’ Sapien superiority. Given European history of slavery and ongoing hardship for people of colour, irony indeed that our Sapiens ancestors would have had dark skin and brown eyes, and Neanderthals lighter skin, ginger hair, and blue eyes.

What if?

When the final history is written, presumably by robots, our dominion will also be seen as our destruction. Our inability to live in balance with the physical limitations of the planet might plausibly mean that retrospectively, the Neanderthals were unlucky, but in terms of longevity, far more successful than our Sapien selves. 

Or perhaps, if Sapiens hadn’t survived, then the modern world would comprise of billions of Neanderthals, driving cars, flying planes, extracting, combusting, consuming, polluting, and devising ever more effective ways of killing each other. Just like us, would modern Neanderthals sow the seeds of their own destruction though that deadly combination of cleverness and lack of collective wisdom.

Or perhaps, if they were just a little less clever than us, they would continue as the 400,000 years before we came along.