Extinction It seems that something much more random could have played a significant role. About 45,000 years ago, the climate of Europe went through a burst of very sudden switches between warm and cold conditions that would have transformed the Neanderthals environment. The forests on which they depended began to recede, giving way to open plains. On these plains, Professor Shea believes, the Neanderthal thrusting spear and ambush strategy wouldnt have worked. So Neanderthals retreated with the forests, their population falling as their hunting grounds shrank. By comparison, modern humans made lighter stone points that could be fitted on to lighter spear shafts. These could be thrown, enabling our ancestors to hunt more effectively in an open landscape. Hunting in an open landscape also required high levels of mobility to follow migrating herds, and the agility to throw the spears themselves. So how did Neanderthal stand up to modern humans ancestors in agility? Analysing the inner ear of a Neanderthal, Professor Fred Spoor, from UCL, has discovered clues to Neanderthals agility. The semi-circular canals of the inner ear provide sense of balance, and by studying a range of animals, he has found a high correlation between the size of the canals and agility. Throughout human evolution, the canals seem to have increased in size as our agility has increased. But Neanderthals have smaller canals than both modern humans and even earlier ancestors. This suggests they were less agile. Returning to the skeleton, Professor Holliday found an explanation for this - that the short limbs and wide pelvis of Neanderthals would have resulted in less efficient locomotion than modern humans. The energy costs in travelling would have been higher, and this would have been a serious evolutionary disadvantage. For Neanderthal, it was an ironic end. The very body plan that had made Neanderthal so well adapted to the Ice Age, had locked him into an evolutionary cul-de-sac. He might have been better adapted to the cold than the first modern humans, but as the landscape changed, it was our ancestors, who could take better advantage of the more open environment, who survived.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 08:51:15 +0000
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