Neanderthal has been extinct for 32,000 years, but today, these prehistoric human have won a scientist the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. He is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, and Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo (Svante Pääbo).
According to the Nobel Prize Committee, Parbo won the award because of his "discovery of the genome of the extinct ancient humans and the evolution of humans ". His achievements are mainly:
pioneered the method of extracting, sorting and analyzing ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones
found that modern Homo sapiens outside Africa were flowing with Neanderthal blood
found that the unrecognized Denisovan
Interestingly, Pabo also had a behind-the-scenes tidbit. He had always thought he was homosexual. Until he met a male female primate primate scientist, he suddenly realized that he was originally bisexual . The two of them happily got married and gave birth to a son and a daughter. I wonder if this has brought inspiration and contribution to his scientific research.
The main research object of Pabo is the Neanderthals. So what exactly happened to Neanderthals and why can Pabo bring Nobel Prize ?
Earth life was born 3.5 billion years ago, and it continued to divide and proliferate from a single cell. Finally, about 6 million years ago, the ancestors of modern humans abandoned their brother chimpanzees, evolved alone, and walked to the top of the power of life on earth, dominating everything.
2.3 million years ago, the first animal capable humans, considered humans, appeared and used primitive stone tools.
2 million years ago, the human ancestor Homo erectus appeared, making a living by collecting, fishing and hunting. He could use stone tools, use fire and preserve fire.
About 700,000 years ago, a Homo erectus Heidelberg gave birth to two children, one evolved into Neanderthals and the other evolved into us--modern Homo sapiens . (This is still controversial)
Homo sapiens live in Africa, and Neanderthals have always lived in Europe and parts of Asia. In the early days, the two were peaceful, but some Homo sapiens walked out of Africa 130,000-100,000 years ago, entered the Near East, and later entered Europe, conflicts were inevitable.
At that time, Neanderthals were stronger than our ancestors of Homo sapiens. The average weight of men was 77.6 kilograms and women was 66.4 kilograms, but their height was lower than us. Male 168/female 156 176/163 163, which was completely overweight and could be said to be very strong. This is from their lung capacity of 9 liters (male) and our 6 liters (male). Moreover, the Neanderthal brain capacity is 1640 for men/1460cc for women, which is much higher than the average level of prehistoric Homo sapiens men and women.
It seems that Neanderthals are strong, smart and powerful, so why are they extinct?
Pabbo's study confirms previous conjectures that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had gene exchange . Currently, except for sub-Saharan Africa, all modern people have 1% to 4% of Neanderthal genes in their bodies, while we East Asians are even higher, about 2.3% to 2.6%, exceeding 1.8% to 2.4% of West Asians and Europeans.
Since there is genetic communication, it means that some kind of indescribable contact has occurred. These contacts may be "free love" or "forced buying and selling". Judging from the domineering style of Homo sapiens being accustomed to extermination of everything, Neanderthals may have encountered an unexpected situation.
Of course, this is just a possibility. It is also possible that Neanderthals live a narrow range of life and have been inbreeding, resulting in a relatively small population. When they met Homo sapiens, there may be only 10,000 to 70,000 people, less than one-tenth of Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens grew rapidly. When they began to leave Africa 70,000 years ago due to the Indonesian Lake Toba supervolcano eruption, they might have only 2,000 to 10,000 people left, and by 10,000 years ago it increased to 5 million. The Neanderthals became extinct about 32,000 years ago (remains, related cultures and stone relics existed at the latest 22,000 years ago). It may really be that one of them grew and the other was declining, and the competition failed.
Also, Neanderthals are too fierce and like to fight with beasts and hunt large prey. They also often engage in violent behaviors, resulting in high mortality rates. 79-94% of the remains show evidence of severe trauma healing, and more than 80% of people die before the age of 40.
In addition, Neanderthals have very low fertility rates, while infant mortality rates are extremely high, reaching 43%.
After the separation of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, a sister race Denisovans (tentatively), was discovered by Pabo after analyzing the remains of the Denisovan Cave in the Altai Mountains in the southern Siberian . 17% of the Denisovans' genes are from Neanderthals. Among modern people such as Australia and nearby Aboriginal people, Polynesians , Fijians , Indonesian Easterners, 5% of Denisovans have genes, indicating that Denisovans have once moved south to merge with local indigenous peoples.
East Asians also have the genes of the Denisovan, which come from the north and the south respectively, so they may have had mixed races with the Denisovans down and the south in multiple periods.
So look, Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans have performed many life dramas of separation and fusion, love and hate, love and hatred on the lands of the four continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Finally, they ended with Neanderthals and Denisovans and withdrew from the stage of history on earth. Homo sapiens finally got rid of their last brothers and sisters and stood alone at the peak of the evolution of life on earth.
The smoke of gunpowder has dissipated, history has passed, and looking back at the bloody storm we have gone through, isn’t it also quite interesting? Pabo's paleogenomic research is one of the two major branches, the other is the study of remains and remains. Through these research, we can understand ourselves more deeply, gain richer knowledge, and better move towards the future.
For example, interestingly, it was also Pabo's 2020 study that found that a mutation on human chromosome 3 has become a major genetic risk of the new coronavirus. This mutation was inherited from Neanderthals 60,000 years ago, making 16% of Europeans and 50% of South Asians more likely to worsen after being infected with the virus, and the risk of requiring a ventilator increased by 3 times. Bangladesh is as high as 63%, and East Asia, Africa, and Middle East are almost non-existent.
