Is our species more intelligent than Neanderthals?

They are usually seen as brutes, but... were they really less intelligent than sapiens?

The word "Neanderthal" is often used as an insult or in a pejorative sense, indicating that the person referred to is coarse, brutish, impulsive and unintelligent. And the fact is that most people consider that the Neanderthal, one of the different human species that have populated the earth and became extinct during prehistoric times, had a very limited cognitive capacity, a kind of savage that could not compete with the Homo sapiensto which we belong.

But is this really so? Is Homo sapiens more intelligent than Neanderthals? In this article we are going to make a brief reflection on this subject.

Who were the Neanderthals?

Neanderthals are an extinct species of the genus Homo (i.e., one of the species of humans) that lived mainly in Europe and Asia lived mainly in Europe and Asia approximately 230,000 to 28,000 years ago.. They are the last species of the genus homo to become extinct, leaving the Homo sapiens as the sole survivor of this part of the tree of Biological evolution. This species shared with Homo sapiens the Indo-European territories for thousands of years, until, for reasons that are still unknown today, they eventually disappeared.

Neanderthals were physically well adapted to life in cold and mountainous environments such as those of Ice Age Europe. They were shorter and much stronger and more muscular than sapiens, and had a shorter pharynx and wider nose. It also had a larger skull, with a double ciliary arch (a kind of bony covering that covers the eyebrows) and prognathism, as well as a larger cranial capacity. a larger cranial capacity.

Popular culture has often placed this species below modern homo sapiens, associating it with an image of savagery and considering its limbs inferior or less adapted due to the fact that they became extinct. But this does not imply that they were, or that they lacked intelligence.

Evidence of the intelligence of Neanderthals.

What is certain is that Neanderthals were not unintelligent brutes.. This human species, which in fact was close to being called Homo stupidus (Ernst Haeckel even proposed such a name for this species after its discovery), actually had a fairly high level of cognitive ability. And there is a great deal of evidence that merits the consideration of these beings as highly intelligent creatures.

They have been observed in different sites where there is evidence that the Neanderthals buried their deadThis implies the ability to perceive themselves as differentiated entities, and the presence of abstract thought. They also mastered fire and made complex tools, although different from those that our ancestors would end up using, and traces of dyes have been found that could have been used to dye clothing.

Although until recently it was believed that they had left no artistic representations, the antiquity of some cave paintings (prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens) seem to indicate that they also made artistic products of this type, which would indicate the capacity for abstraction and symbolization.

They possessed a social structure, and there is evidence that they cared for the elderly and sick. Their anatomical structure and brain capacity mean that they are considered to have the ability to use oral language. Likewise, it has been observed in different archaeological sites that Neanderthals used different strategies to hunt, hunt, hunt and hunt in the wild. employed different strategies for hunting, often using the characteristics of the terrain to hunt.. This implies a capacity for planning, abstraction and judgment, since it requires knowledge of the environment and of the advantages and disadvantages of certain geographical features, such as wells and ravines.

More or less intelligent than Homo sapiens?

The fact that Neanderthals possessed intelligence is not sufficient proof that our cognitive capacity could not be greater. However, there is no demonstrable empirical evidence to the contrary. The behavior of one or the other species was similar, and only the disappearance of the Neanderthals is used as proof of their lesser mental ability.

In fact, the cranial capacity of these humans (remember that, like us, they are part of the genus homo) is on average greater than that of Homo sapiens, and their brains are also larger than those of Homo sapiens.. While this does not necessarily indicate superior intelligence (since the fact that a brain is larger does not necessarily imply that it is more efficient), it does indicate that the brain capacity could allow the development of cognitive abilities. Their nervous system, however, might function differently from ours, leading to different ways of thinking and seeing the world.

Possible reasons for their extinction

Many people believe that if the Neanderthals became extinct and we are still here it was, at least in part, because the cognitive ability of the Homo sapiens allowed it to cope with problems and disadvantages that the Neanderthal, in principle more primitive, could not face. But the fact is that the fact that we have survived until now is not necessarily the result of greater intelligence. There are multiple reasons that led to the disappearance of the Neanderthal, some of them empirically contrasted.

One of the possible reasons is to be found in a phenomenon that has been repeated countless times throughout history, between members of the same species who have lived in different ecosystems: the transmission of diseases for which the members of the same species have lived in different ecosystems. transmission of diseases for which the members of the other party are not prepared.. An example of this can be found in the conquest of America by the Europeans; they unintentionally brought to the American continent diseases for which the natives had no resistance or immunity, causing a large number of deaths (quickly transmitted in large cities and settlements and depleting the native population). Something similar may have occurred among the Neanderthals before the arrival of the Homo sapiens.

Another reason, and probably one of the main ones, is inbreeding, something corroborated by science. Neanderthals, in the then cold Europe, tended to establish small social groups in which related people lived together to some degree. to some degree, reproducing with them in such a way that there was a high level of inbreeding. In the long run, this practice gradually weakened the species by adding harmful mutations and genetic alterations and not incorporating new genetic material, to the point that over time the birth of new healthy and fertile Neanderthals became difficult.

The Cro-Magnon man, on the contrary, traveled long distances and had to move often to hunt, a mobility that made it easier to avoid such a high level of inbreeding by finding other settlements and linking up with similar individuals with whom there was no consanguinity.

It must also be taken into account that the Neanderthals were adapted to Europe and tended to look for caves to take refuge from the cold.caves often sought out and inhabited by predators that they had to face.

Finally, although we mostly imagine the extinction of the Neanderthals as a process in which they all ended up dying out, there is a theory that their extinction might actually have to do with hybridization. may have had to do with hybridization.. The Homo sapiens became very numerous in comparison with the number of Neanderthals, and the species may have been lost as its genes were diluted in the crosses between Neanderthals and Sapiens. This is consistent with the fact that it has been found that present-day humans possess genes belonging to Neanderthals.

Neanderthal genes in present-day humans

Another aspect that may be relevant to comment on is the fact that in the genes of present-day homo sapiens sapiens, traces and remnants of Neanderthal genes have been found. vestiges and remnants of DNA from Homo neanderthalensis have been found in the genes of present-day homo sapiens sapiens. Homo neanderthalensis. This implies that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens that they produced fertile offspring, and that we actually share part of our heritage with this other species. In fact, some recent researchers believe that today's human beings possess about two percent of Neanderthal genetic material, a much higher percentage than early studies seemed to indicate.

Some of the genes that have been found to be similar to those of this species have to do with skin and hair color (possibly lighter in Neanderthals), tolerance to solar radiation (greater in Neanderthals, who lived in Europe before homo sapiens migrated from Africa), mood and circadian rhythms. Many of these are also related to the immune systemthanks to which we can defend ourselves against infections and diseases. On the other hand, some of these genes have also been linked to schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, autoimmune problems, cholesterol and fat accumulation.