olympus-google-fonts domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/peterjim/drbannonsblog.aprendo.co.uk/drbannonsblog_wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114jetpack domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/peterjim/drbannonsblog.aprendo.co.uk/drbannonsblog_wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Is it possible that infections disease, so sadly in the headlines once again, played a big part in the Neanderthal extinction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please see my Substack site for a better presentation of this post.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pandemics are not new<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t call me Neanderthal! Or please do<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cA bit Neanderthal\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s 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<\/a> \u201cSurvival of the Fittest\u201d trope those who consider themselves superior like to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Science to the rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The science of genetics is changing all that. It seems it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one thing, Neanderthals had bigger brains than us, and while size isn\u2019t 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\u2019s cave<\/a> in Gibraltar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Increasing evidence shows they led at least as sophisticated lives as we did at that time. This included using stone tools, javelins<\/a>, 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 against<\/a>COVID19, others make it worse.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n DNA analysis also reveals, unsurprisingly given their dispersed communities of 20-30 individuals, considerable inbreeding<\/a>, though this is also likely in small groups of hunting gathering Sapiens. This didn\u2019t seem to harm Neanderthal longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Care in the Cave<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That they were humane is evidenced by fossil records<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did we pinch their cave art?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophisticated dating techniques have revealed that many cave paintings considered to be drawn by early Sapiens, <\/a>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dating a Neanderthal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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<\/a> inherited from Neanderthals. Modern Africans have ten times less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the myth that Neanderthals disappeared due to our superiority is untrue \u2013 so why did they perish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Might it be that infectious diseases were likely behind their extinction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2018African advantage\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2018European advantage\u2019. 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The exception to this is Malaria and Yellow Fever in the tropics which led to African being called the \u2018White Man\u2019s Grave\u2019 and which protected Africa from European horrors until quinine was discovered to offer protection against malaria and the rape of Africa could begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Battle of the bugs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n