Random Thoughts — 01

Paleogenomics has revolutionized our understanding of human evolution.

It tells us that we didn’t kill the Neanderthals, we absorbed them. They is us.

The Neanderthal woman nicknamed Nana, reconstructed at the Gibraltar Museum, with feathers

So, I read a story here on Medium where the writer talked about the innate “killer nature” of humanity as evidenced by the fact that we are the last surviving hominid species. His implication was that we must have killed off our nine cousins. If we are the “sole survivor” species it must be because we were the most violent. Survival of the fittest, the stronger species kills off the weaker, man is a killer ape. It’s in our nature.

I have heard this argument my whole life as an explanation for why the Neanderthal went extinct. The thing is, it’s not true. The truth is that we merged with them. The “Clan of the Cave Bear” was actually right, we interbred with the Neanderthal. So much so, that they vanished as a species and became only a ghost in our genome.

Paleogenomics and the Human Genome Project have revolutionized our understanding of human evolution. With the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome, we have been able to compare the human (Sapiens) genome with that of another species of intelligent hominids in the Homo family. To perhaps understand why we are alone, and all the others have vanished.