There is no definitive evidence yet that ancient hominids were inferior to Homo sapiens in cognitive development.
Were Neanderthals really just recent ancestors surpassed by the smarter and more agile Homo sapiens? This position may be wrong, writes IFLScience.
Neanderthals lived on Earth along with early Homo sapiens and became extinct about 40,000 years ago. It is early humans who are blamed for the Neanderthal extinction, although this theory remains unproven.
Recent advances in paleontology have allowed scientists to study the likely structure of the Neanderthal brain in more detail. What is now known is that the Neanderthal brain was about the same size as a human’s, but had a different shape.
An analysis of 32 modern humans and 13 Neanderthal skulls showed that the latter had larger brain areas devoted to vision. This supports the fact that Neanderthals had larger eyes than modern humans. Neanderthal brains, because of their larger bodies, also had larger areas dedicated to motor control.
The study authors suggested that because of all of the above, less cognitive weight was placed on performing complex social processing. The result of this may have been that Neanderthals were unable to form strong social groups.
Another study shows that most theories about Neanderthals being stupid are based on a misleading comparison of ancient hominins with modern humans. It’s like accusing people from the 18th century of being mentally handicapped because they couldn’t make TikTok.
A fairer analysis comparing Neanderthals to early humans was clearer. A 3D reconstruction of the brains of both species showed smaller cerebellums in Neanderthals, which may have affected their cognitive and social functions.
In another recent study, scientists extracted a Neanderthal gene from ancient DNA samples and inserted it into the brains of mice and ferrets, as well as into “mini-brain” organoids made from human stem cells. The brains with Neanderthal DNA formed new brain cells more slowly, indicating that ancient hominins had a lower cognitive peak than Homo sapiens.
The authors of this latest paper said that even their innovative approach only indicated reduced cognitive function in Neanderthals.
