Neanderthal ancestors died out because of the shape of their brains, not necessarily the size, according to latest research
Scientists suggest that different ways of processing information may have helped humans outcompete their hominid cousins
For more than 200,000 years, Neanderthals successfully occupied the cold, dark forests and shores of Europe. Then early humans came along.
Archaeological evidence suggests that human migrants from Africa arrived on the European continent around 40,000 years ago. About that same time, the Neanderthals all died off.
For decades, anthropologists have puzzled over what factors contributed to this rapid and total replacement of Neanderthals by their modern human cousins.
Now, a multidisciplinary team including mechanical engineers, neuroscientists and physical anthropologists have provided a new clue to this mystery by creating the first digital reconstruction of four Neanderthal brains.
By comparing these brains with an average human brain, the authors suggest that different ways of processing information may have helped humans outcompete their hominid cousins. The work was published on Thursday in Scientific Reports.
To reconstruct a Neanderthal brain, the authors started by measuring the overall shape of the inside of four Neanderthal skulls.