Neanderthals Reconsidered: Boule's Arthritic Skeleton, Birch Tar and 2% DNA

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

The Neander Valley was named after hymn writer Joachim Neander, whose family had changed its name from Neumann, meaning new man. In 1856 quarry workers there found bones they took for a cave bear's, and schoolteacher Johann Carl Fuhlrott recognized them as an ancient human, three years before Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This episode traces how the caveman stereotype took hold: Rudolf Virchow blamed the bones on rickets and blows to the head, William King said the species was incapable of moral thought, and Marcellin Boule posed a skeleton as a slouching ape without accounting for its owner's severe spinal osteoarthritis.

The real Neanderthal was about 5 foot 5 for males, with a barrel chest, hips 31 percent wider than modern men's, a radiator nose, and a brain averaging up to 1,640 cubic centimeters. They were ambush hunters of straight tusked elephants who made Levallois tools, birch tar glue cooked without oxygen, and yew wood spears. Small, isolated, inbred groups may explain 150,000 years of little technological change. The 2010 genome showed interbreeding, mostly Neanderthal fathers and modern human mothers, before extinction around 40,000 years ago amid competition, mutational meltdown, and the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption.

Why their thick, wide bodies were a hyperarctic adaptation for holding heat
Matching upper body injuries in men and women, suggesting both joined dangerous hunts
Traces of natural pain relievers found in their dental plaque
About 2 percent Neanderthal DNA in people with ancestry outside sub-Saharan Africa, and 20 percent of their genome surviving overall
How mitochondrial DNA reveals which parent was the Neanderthal

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(16184)

The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow old...

9 Marras 18min

Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, ...

7 Marras 18min

Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaim...

7 Marras 49min

Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, ...

6 Marras 38min

Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, en...

5 Marras 45min

Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of t...

4 Marras 53min

Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

3 Marras 48min

Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

2 Marras 21min