Paleontological data on the origin of man. Neanderthal weight Neanderthal

European scientists studied the skeleton of a Neanderthal boy from the El Sidrón cave in Spain. They were able to establish that the vertebrae and skull of the child were far from completing their age-related changes, despite the fact that he was almost eight years old. At Homo sapiens at this age such changes are already completed. The discovery is rather unexpected, since longer childhood is usually associated with more high level development of a particular species, due to which its representatives, when growing up, need to assimilate a larger amount of information. The corresponding one is published in Science.

The authors of the work studied the skeleton of a boy from the El Sidron cave, dated 49,000 years ago. The age of the child at the time of death was determined from the teeth (and traces of eating on them) at 7.69 years. Despite this, he did not completely end the process of ossification of a number of vertebrae. The brain volume was only 87.5% of that of a standard adult Neanderthal. In children of a modern person, ossification of the same vertebrae occurs at 4–6 years of age, and by the age of 7–8 years, the volume of the brain is 95% of the volume of the brain of an adult.

New data show that Neanderthals matured much more slowly than modern humans. Typically, primate species that have more complex behavior tend to mature longer. The need to assimilate the necessary information from older relatives, as well as a large brain, the development of which takes longer, slows down the maturation of modern people in comparison, for example, with chimpanzees. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, are characterized by a longer maturation than more primitive monkeys. The brain volume of Neanderthals was indeed somewhat larger than that of a modern person, which could also be reflected in the longer duration of growing up.

At the same time, there are some bottlenecks in the method of work. The rate of maturation of the Neanderthal child in it is determined in comparison with modern children, and not with ancient Cro-Magnon children. Meanwhile, modern Homo sapiens markedly changed compared to their ancestors, former contemporaries of the Neanderthals. In particular, the average brain volume of the then people of our species was 5% larger than it is now. Since then, it has noticeably decreased, as ancient people lived in much more difficult conditions than we do. They had a weakly expressed specialization: everyone had to be able to make tools, clothes, hunt, know medicinal herbs and perform all the operations today performed by specialists.

Today, due to the ever-increasing specialization, the load on his mental capacity has decreased and the volume of the brain has fallen from 1500 to 1425 cubic centimeters (if the specialization continues, he may shrink even more). That is, in theory, in the Paleolithic era, the formation of the brain of a human child could also take longer than today's children. It may have lasted about as long as that of the Neanderthal boy from the El Cidron cave.

Man has always been interested in his origin. Who he is, where he came from and how he appeared - for a long time these were one of the main questions. V Ancient Greece in the period of the birth of the first sciences, the problem was fundamental in the emerging philosophy. And now this topic has not lost its relevance. Although over the past centuries, scientists have managed to move far ahead in the problem of the appearance of man, there are more and more questions.

None of the researchers can be completely sure that the accepted hypotheses of the origin of life, including the appearance of man, are correct. Moreover, both centuries ago and today, anthropologists are waging real wars of scientists, defending their ideas and refuting the theories of opponents.

One of the most well-studied ancient humans is the Neanderthal. This is an extinct representative of the human race, who lived 130 - 20 thousand years ago.

History of the origin of the name

In the west of Germany, near Düsseldorf, is the Neandertal Gorge. It got its name from the German pastor and composer Neander. In the middle of the 19th century, the skull of an ancient man was found here. Two years later, the anthropologist Schaafhausen, who was involved in his research, introduced the term "Neanderthal" into scientific circulation. Thanks to him, the found bones were not sold, and they are now in the Rhineland Museum.

The term "Neanderthal" (photos obtained as a result of the reconstruction of his appearance can be seen below) does not have clear boundaries due to the vastness and heterogeneity of this group of hominids. The status of this ancient man is also not precisely defined. Some of the scientists classify it as a subspecies of Homo sapiens, some distinguish it as a separate species and even genus. Now ancient man The Neanderthal is the most studied fossil hominin species. Moreover, bones belonging to this species are still being found.

How it was discovered

The remains of these representatives were found the first of the hominids. Ancient people (Neanderthals) were discovered in 1829 in Belgium. Then this find was not given any importance, and its importance was proved much later. Then their remains were found in England. And only the third discovery in 1856 near Düsseldorf gave the name to the Neanderthal and proved the importance of all previous fossils found.

The quarry workers opened a grotto filled with silt. After clearing it, they found a part of a human skull and several massive bones near the entrance. The ancient remains were acquired by the German paleontologist Johann Fulroth, who later described them.

Neanderthal - structural features and classification

The found bones of fossil people were carefully studied, and on the basis of research, scientists were able to recreate an approximate appearance. The Neanderthal is undoubtedly one of the first people, since his resemblance to is obvious. However, there are also a huge number of differences.

The average height of an ancient person was 165 centimeters. He had a dense physique and, moreover, in terms of the volume of the cranium, the ancient people, the Neanderthals, surpassed the modern man. The arms were short, more like paws. Broad shoulders and a barrel-shaped chest indicate great strength.

Powerful very small chin, short neck - another feature of the Neanderthals. Most likely, these features were formed under the influence of the difficult conditions of the Ice Age, in which ancient people lived 100 - 50 thousand years ago.

The structure of the Neanderthals suggests that they had a large muscle mass, a heavy skeleton, ate mainly meat and were better adapted to the subarctic climate than the Cro-Magnons.

They had a primitive speech, most likely consisting of a large number of consonants.

Since these ancient people lived on a vast territory, there were several types of them. Some had features closer to the animal-like appearance, others looked like a modern person.

Habitat of Homo neanderthalensis

From the remains found today, it is known that the Neanderthal (an ancient man who lived millennia ago) lived in Europe, Central Asia and in the East. They were not found in Africa. Later, this fact became one of the proofs that Homo neanderthalensis is not the ancestor of modern man, but his closest relative.

How did you manage to reconstruct the appearance of an ancient person

Starting with Schaaffhausen, godfather» Neanderthal, many attempts have been made to recreate the appearance of this ancient hominid from fragments of its skull and skeleton. The Soviet anthropologist and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov achieved great success in this. He created his own method of restoring the appearance of a person using skeletal remains. He made more than two hundred sculptural portraits of historical figures. Gerasimov also reconstructed the appearance of the late Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. The laboratory of anthropological reconstruction created by him continues to successfully restore the appearance of ancient people even now.

Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons - is there anything in common between them?

These two representatives of the human race lived for some time in the same era and existed side by side for twenty thousand years. Scientists attribute the Cro-Magnons to the early representatives of modern man. They appeared in Europe 40 - 50 thousand years ago and were very different from the Neanderthals physically and mentally. They were tall (180 cm), had a straight forehead without protruding brow ridges, a narrow nose and a more clearly defined chin. In appearance, these people were very close to modern man.

The cultural achievements of the Cro-Magnons surpass all the successes of their predecessors. Having inherited from their ancestors a large developed brain and primitive technologies, they made a giant leap forward in their development in a short time. Their discoveries are amazing. For example, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived in small groups in caves and tents made of skins. But it was the latter who created the first settlements and finally formed. They tamed the dog, performed funeral rites, painted hunting scenes on the walls of caves, knew how to make tools not only from stone, but also from horn and bones. Cro-Magnons had articulate speech.

Thus, the differences between these two types of ancient man were significant.

Homo neanderthalensis and modern man

For a long time in scientific circles there were disputes about which of the representatives of ancient people should be considered the ancestor of man. Now it is known for sure that the Neanderthal (photos taken on the basis of the reconstruction of the remains of their bones clearly confirm this) is physically and externally very different from Homo sapiens and is not an ancestor of modern man.

Previously, there was a different point of view on this. But recent studies have given reason to believe that the reasonable lived in Africa, which lay outside the habitat of Homo neanderthalensis. In the entire long history of studying the remains of their bones, they have never been found on the African continent. But this issue was finally resolved in 1997, when Neanderthal DNA was deciphered at the University of Munich. The differences in genes found by scientists were too great.

The study of the Homo neanderthalensis genome continued in 2006. It has been scientifically proven that the divergence in the genes of this type of ancient person from the modern one began about 500 thousand years ago. To decipher the DNA, bones found in Croatia, Russia, Germany and Spain were used.

Therefore, we can say with confidence that the Neanderthal is an extinct species close to us, which is not a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens. This is another branch of the vast family of hominids, which includes, in addition to humans and their extinct ancestors, progressive primates.

In 2010, in the course of ongoing research, Neanderthal genes were found in many modern peoples. This suggests that there was mixing between Homo neanderthalensis and Cro-Magnons.

Life and life of ancient people

The Neanderthal man (an ancient man who lived in the Middle Paleolithic) first used the most primitive tools that he inherited from his predecessors. Gradually, new, more advanced forms of guns began to appear. They were still made of stone, but became more diverse and complex in processing techniques. In total, about sixty types of products were found, which are actually variations of three main types: axes, side-scrapers and pointed points.

During the excavations of Neanderthal sites, chisels, piercers, scrapers and serrated tools were also found.

Scrapers helped in the dressing and dressing of animals and their skins, the pointed ones had an even wider scope. They were used as daggers, knives for butchering carcasses, as spearheads and arrowheads. Ancient Neanderthals used bone to make tools. These were mainly awls and points, but larger items were also found - daggers and clubs made of horn.

As for the weapons, they were still extremely primitive. Its main type, apparently, was a spear. This conclusion was made on the basis of studies of animal bones found at the Neanderthal site.

These ancient people were not lucky with the climate. If their predecessors lived in a warm period, then by the time Homo neanderthalensis appeared, a severe cooling began, glaciers began to form. The landscape was like a tundra. Therefore, the life of the Neanderthals was extremely harsh and full of dangers.

As before, caves served as their dwelling, but buildings gradually began to appear in the open - tents made of animal skins and structures made of mammoth bones.

Classes

Most of the time of the ancient man was occupied by the search for food. According to various studies, they were not scavengers, but hunters, and this activity suggests consistency in actions. According to scientists, the main commercial species for Neanderthals were large mammals. Since the ancient man lived on a vast territory, the victims were different: mammoths, wild bulls and horses, woolly rhinos, deer. An important game animal was the cave bear.

Despite the fact that hunting for large animals became their main occupation, Neanderthals continued to be engaged in gathering. According to studies, they were not completely carnivorous, and their diet included roots, nuts and berries.

culture

The Neanderthal is not a primitive creature, as was thought in the 19th century. The ancient man, who lived in the Middle Paleolithic era, formed a cultural direction, which was called the Mousterian culture. At this time, the birth new form public life - tribal community. Neanderthals took care of the members of their kind. The hunters did not eat the prey on the spot, but carried it home, to the cave to the rest of the tribesmen.

Homo neanderthalensis did not yet know how to draw or create animal figures from stone or clay. But at the site of his camps, stones with skillfully made recesses were found. Ancient people also knew how to apply parallel scratches to bone tools and make jewelry from drilled animal teeth and shells.

The high cultural development of the Neanderthals is also evidenced by their funeral rite. More than twenty graves have been found. The bodies were located in shallow pits in the pose of a sleeping person with bent arms and legs.

Ancient people also possessed the rudiments of medical knowledge. They knew how to heal fractures and dislocations. Some finds indicate that primitive people took care of the wounded.

Homo neanderthalensis - the mystery of the extinction of ancient man

When and why did the last Neanderthal disappear? This mystery has occupied the minds of scientists for many years. There is no definitively proven answer to this question. Modern man does not know why the dinosaurs disappeared, and cannot say what led to the extinction of his closest fossil relative.

For a long time there was an opinion that the Neanderthals were supplanted by their more adapted and developed rival, the Cro-Magnon. And there is a lot of evidence for this theory. It is known that it appeared in Europe in the range of Homo neanderthalensis about 50 thousand years ago, and after 30 thousand years the last Neanderthal disappeared. It is believed that these twenty centuries of existence side by side in a small area became a time of fierce competition between the two species for resources. Cro-Magnon won thanks to the numerical superiority and better adaptability.

Not all scientists agree with this theory. Some put forward their own, no less interesting hypotheses. Many hold the view that the Neanderthals were killed by climate change. The fact is that 30 thousand years ago Europe began a long period of cold and dry weather. Perhaps this led to the disappearance of the ancient man, who could not adapt to the changed conditions of life.

A rather unusual theory was put forward by Simon Underdown, a specialist at Oxford University. He believes that the Neanderthals were struck down by a disease that is characteristic of cannibals. As you know, eating a person was not uncommon at that time.

Another version of the disappearance of this ancient man is assimilation with the Cro-Magnons.

The extinction of Homo neanderthalensis occurred unevenly in time. On the Iberian Peninsula, representatives of this species of fossil people lived a millennium after the disappearance of the rest in Europe.

Neanderthals in modern culture

The appearance of an ancient man, his dramatic struggle for existence and the mystery of disappearance have repeatedly become topics for literary works and movies. Joseph Henri Roni Sr. wrote the novel Fight for the Fire, which was highly acclaimed by critics and was filmed in 1981. The film of the same name received a prestigious award - the Oscar. In 1985, the painting “The Tribe of the Cave Bear” was created, which told about how a girl from the Cro-Magnon family, after the death of her tribe, began to be brought up by Neanderthals.

A new feature film dedicated to ancient people was created in 2010. This is "The Last Neanderthal" - the story of Eo, the only survivor of his kind. In this picture, the cause of the death of Homo neanderthalensis was not only the Cro-Magnons, who attacked their camps and killed, but also an unknown disease. It also considers the possibility of assimilation of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The film was shot in a supposedly documentary style and on a good scientific basis.

In addition, the Neanderthals are dedicated a large number of films about their lives, occupations, culture, and theories of disappearance.

Neanderthal(lat. Homo neanderthalensis) is an extinct species from the genus People (lat. Homo). The first people with the features of Neanderthals (proto-Neanderthals) appeared in Europe about 600 thousand years ago. Classical Neanderthals formed about 100-130 thousand years ago. The latest remains date back to 28-33 thousand years ago.

Opening

For the first time, the remains of H. neanderthalensis were discovered in 1829 by Philippe-Charles Schmerling in the caves of Enzhi (modern Belgium), it was the skull of a child. In 1848, the skull of an adult Neanderthal was found in Gibraltar (Gibraltar 1). Naturally, neither find at that time was considered as evidence of the existence of an extinct species of people, and they were classified as the remains of Neanderthals much later.

The type specimen (holotype) of the species (Neanderthal 1) was found only in August 1856 in a limestone quarry in the Neandertal valley near Düsseldorf (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). It consists of a cranial vault, two femurs, three bones from the right hand and two from the left, part of the pelvis, fragments of the scapula and ribs. The local gymnasium teacher Johann Karl Fulroth was interested in geology and paleontology. Having received the remains from the workers who found them, he drew attention to their complete fossilization and geological position, and came to the conclusion about their considerable age and important scientific significance. Fulroth then handed them over to professor of anatomy at the University of Bonn, Hermann Schaaffhausen. In June 1857, the discovery was announced, this happened 2 years before the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. In 1864, at the suggestion of the Anglo-Irish geologist William King, a new species was named after the place of its discovery. In 1867, Ernst Haeckel proposed the name Homo stupidus (i.e., the man is stupid), but in accordance with the rules of nomenclature, King's name remained the priority.

In 1880, the jaw of a child of H. neanderthalensis was found in the Czech Republic, along with tools from the Mousterian period and bones of extinct animals. In 1886, excellently preserved skeletons of a man and a woman were found in Belgium at a depth of about 5 m, also along with numerous Mousterian tools. Subsequently, the remains of Neanderthals were found in other places in the territory. modern Russia, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Iran, Uzbekistan, Israel and other countries. To date, the remains of more than 400 Neanderthals have been found.

The status of the Neanderthal as a previously unknown variety of ancient man was not established immediately. Many prominent scientists of that time did not recognize him as such. Thus, the outstanding German scientist Rudolf Virchow rejected the thesis of a “primitive man” and considered the Neanderthal skull to be just a pathologically altered skull of modern man. And the doctor and anatomist Franz Mayer, having studied the structure of the pelvis and lower limbs, put forward a hypothesis that the remains belonged to a person who spent a significant part of his life on horseback. He suggested that it could be a Russian Cossack from the era of the Napoleonic wars.

Classification

Almost since the discovery, scientists have been debating the status of Neanderthals. Some of them are of the opinion that the Neanderthal is not independent view, but only a subspecies of modern man (lat. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). This is largely due to the lack of a clear definition of the species. One of the hallmarks of the species is reproductive isolation, and genetic studies suggest that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred. On the one hand, this supports the point of view about the status of Neanderthals as a subspecies of modern man. But on the other hand, there are documented examples of interspecific crossing, as a result of which fertile offspring appeared, so this feature cannot be considered decisive. At the same time, DNA and morphological studies show that Neanderthals are still an independent species.

Origin

Comparison of the DNA of modern humans and H. neanderthalensis shows that they descended from a common ancestor, having split around, according to various estimates, from 350-400 to 500 and even 800 thousand years ago. The probable ancestor of both of these species is the Heidelberg man. Moreover, Neanderthals originated from the European population H. heidelbergensis, and modern man - from the African and much later.

Anatomy and morphology

Men of this species had an average height of 164-168 cm, weight about 78 kg, women - 152-156 cm and 66 kg, respectively. The volume of the brain is 1500-1900 cm 3, which exceeds the average brain volume of a modern person.

The vault of the skull is low, but long, the face is flat with massive superciliary arches, the forehead is low and strongly inclined back. The jaws are long and wide with large teeth, protruding forward, but without a chin protrusion. Judging by tooth wear, Neanderthals were right-handed.

Their physique was more massive than that of a modern person. Rib cage barrel-shaped, with a long torso and relatively short legs. Presumably, the dense physique of Neanderthals is an adaptation to a cold climate, because. in connection with a decrease in the ratio of body surface to its volume, heat loss through the skin decreases. The bones are very strong, this is due to the highly developed muscles. The average Neanderthal was much stronger than modern man.

Genome

Early studies of the H. neanderthalensis genome focused on mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) studies. Because Under normal conditions, mDNA is inherited strictly through the maternal line and contains a much smaller amount of information (16569 nucleotides versus ~3 billion in nuclear DNA), the significance of such studies was not too great.

In 2006, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that the Neanderthal genome would be sequenced over the next few years. In May 2010, preliminary results of this work were published. Research has shown that Neanderthals and modern humans may have interbred, and every living person (except Africans) carries between 1 and 4 percent of H. neanderthalensis genes. The sequencing of the complete Neanderthal genome was completed in 2013 and published in Nature on December 18, 2013.

Habitat

Fossil remains of Neanderthals have been found on a large territory of Eurasia, which includes such modern countries as Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Czech Republic, Israel, Iran, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan. The easternmost find is the remains found in the Altai Mountains (Southern Siberia).

However, it should be noted that a significant part of the period of existence of this species fell on the last glaciation, which could destroy evidence of the habitation of Neanderthals in more northern latitudes.

In Africa, traces of H. neanderthalensis have not yet been found. This is probably due to the adaptation to the cold climate of both themselves and the animals that formed the basis of their diet.

Behavior

Archaeological evidence shows that Neanderthals spent most of their lives in small groups of 5-50 people. There were almost no old people among them, because. most did not live to be 35 years old, but some individuals lived up to 50. There is a lot of evidence of Neanderthals caring for each other. Among those studied there are skeletons with traces of cured injuries and diseases, therefore, during the cure, the tribesmen fed and protected the wounded and sick. There is evidence that the dead were buried, and funeral offerings are sometimes found in the graves.

It is believed that Neanderthals rarely met strangers in their small territory or left it themselves. Although there are occasional finds of high-quality stone products from sources more than 100 km away, they are not enough to conclude that there was trade or even regular contact with other groups.

H. neanderthalensis made extensive use of various stone tools. However, over hundreds of thousands of years, the technology of their manufacture has changed very little. In addition to the obvious assumption that Neanderthals, despite their large brains, were not very smart, there is an alternative hypothesis. It lies in the fact that due to the small number of Neanderthals (and their number never exceeded 100 thousand individuals), the likelihood of innovation was low. Most Neanderthal stone tools belong to the Mousterian culture. Some of them are very sharp. There is evidence of use wooden tools, however, they themselves have practically not reached our days.

Neanderthals used different kinds weapons, including spears. But most likely they were used only in close combat, and not for throwing. Indirectly, this is also confirmed by a large number of skeletons with traces of injuries inflicted by large animals, which Neanderthals hunted and which made up the bulk of their diet.

Previously it was thought that H. neanderthalensis fed exclusively on the meat of large land mammals such as mammoths, aurochs, deer, etc. However, later finds have shown that small animals and some plants also served as food. And in the south of Spain, traces of the fact that Neanderthals ate marine mammals, fish and shellfish were also found. However, despite the variety of food sources, getting enough of it was often a problem. Skeletons with signs of diseases caused by malnutrition serve as proof of this.

It is assumed that Neanderthals already had a great deal of speech. Indirectly, this is evidenced by the production of complex tools and the hunting of large animals, requiring communication for learning and interaction. In addition, there is anatomical and genetic evidence: the structure of the hyoid and occipital bones, the hypoglossal nerve, the presence of a gene responsible for speech in a modern person.

Extinction hypotheses

There are several hypotheses explaining the disappearance of this species, which can be divided into 2 groups: those related to the emergence and spread of modern man and other reasons.

According to modern ideas, modern man, having appeared in Africa, gradually began to spread to the north, where by that time the Neanderthal was widespread. Both of these species coexisted for many millennia, but eventually the Neanderthal was completely replaced by modern man.

There is also a hypothesis linking the disappearance of the Neanderthals with climate change caused by the eruption of a large volcano about 40 thousand years ago. This change led to a decrease in the amount of vegetation and the number of large herbivorous animals that fed on vegetation and, in turn, were the food of the Neanderthals. Accordingly, the lack of food led to the extinction of H. neanderthalensis themselves.

Why is the brain size of a modern human less than that of a Neanderthal.

The volume of the brain of a modern person - a European is an average of 1360 cubic meters. cm., while in Neanderthals in the final stage of their evolution and Kostenkov-Cro-Magnon exceeded 1800 cc. What is the reason for this phenomenon? Are we dumber? Or is it something else?

The evolution curve of the human brain has a maximum related to the time of life of the Kostenkov-Cro-Magnons. At the same time, starting from about 40,000 years ago, art- rock art and sculpture made of stone and bone. The rock art of this period is still very primitive and sketchy. This painting belongs to style I.

As N.V. Klyagin writes:
"In the most ancient style I, animal figures are extremely schematic and difficult to identify ... Often, but by no means always, only heads were transmitted. This pictorial canon is close to modern primitivism: a rounded, elliptical or more angular oblong figure, symbolizing the head, was occasionally supplemented by a geometrically inscribed body, disproportionately large compared to the head and equipped with linear limbs.Style I is predominantly geometric, that is, symbolically representing its denotations (depicted models).A few details (eye, mouth, ears, horns) were also depicted geometrically and did not reflect the exact the appearance of the corresponding details of real animals.The art of style I was more conceptual, symbolic than pictorial, but its further fate shows that such symbolism was the result of low artistic skill, characteristic of the most ancient stage of art.
http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/Science/klyagin/04.php

Thus, we can state the fact that the Kostenkovites-Cro-Magnons have mastered abstract thinking. Indeed, in order to depict an image on a rock or carve an animal figurine from a bone, it was necessary to first form this schematic abstract image in the head.

The development of abstract thinking by our ancestors made it possible to optimize the storage of information. How does this happen? Let me explain with the following example.

Some northern peoples have in their language a lot of words related to the concept - "snow". For snow lying on the ground - one word, for snow on a tree - another, for fresh snow - a third, for old - a fourth, for dry - a fifth, for wet - a sixth, etc. etc. There are about 150 different words in total. It seems that this way of storing information, characterized by a low degree of abstraction, refers to the thinking of Neanderthals and Kostenkov-Cro-Magnons. This way of storing information should take up significantly more space in the brain than the way with a high degree of abstraction. After all, the concepts of dry, wet, fresh, old, etc. etc. we can apply not only to snow, but also to any other subject. This will require establishing additional connections between concepts, complicating the structure of the brain, but at the same time, the amount of memory occupied by storage can be significantly reduced.

We are seeing similar phenomena now in information technology. The development of computer technology first follows the path of increasing the number of computing modules and memory modules. Then computer engineers and designers run into problems with dimensions and power consumption, after which, as a rule, a revolutionary solution follows, which allows reducing both. The size and power consumption of computers are steadily decreasing, while computing capabilities are growing. Computers are getting smarter. The world chess champion is now losing to the computer.

Another analogy is the storage of information in the form of a database. Abstract concepts (words) are elements of the human brain database stored in separate areas of memory. To gain access to combinations of these concepts (words), the brain forms various requests (questions, suggestions), which are processed according to certain rules. For each specific request (question), a certain answer is formed, and a huge number of such answers can be received, depending on which areas of memory this request is addressed to. The brain does not need to store all the results of these queries, as it did at a time when it could not form abstract concepts. It is enough to store information about abstract concepts and rules for processing requests. Thus, with the help of the development of a language that operates with a multitude of abstract concepts-words, a huge saving of memory resources is achieved. In other words, the development of a language makes it possible to reduce the amount of memory by establishing dynamic connections (physical neural connections) between different areas of memory (in the limit of single neurons) in which these words are stored. Changing the question changes the spatial structure of these dynamic connections.

The evolution of the human brain for a long time, over 3 million years, followed the path of increasing the volume of the brain, until it ran into the same overall and energy problems as modern computers. The maintenance of a large brain has become an unbearable burden for the body. It was necessary to find a new way to increase the mind. And such a way was found by the human genome. This method consisted in establishing additional neural connections that provide a connection between concepts. And the concepts themselves with this method of storage became less specific, more abstract, which made it possible to reduce the amount of memory occupied by the storage of these concepts and, accordingly, made it possible to reduce the volume of the brain. At the same time, in the structure of the skull of modern man, Neanderthaloid signs have disappeared, the appearance of which, perhaps, was caused by the need to place a huge brain in the volume of the skull.

Thus, I want to say that it was precisely the mastering of abstract thinking by modern man and the development of language that was the reason that led to a decrease, in comparison with the classical Neanderthal, in the volume of the brain while complicating its internal organization. At the same time, the larger the volume of the brain, the average person, smarter now. Europeans and Chinese, with a brain volume of 1300-1400 cc, are smarter than the Andamanese and Bushmen, with a brain volume of 1000-1200 cc.

P.S. Perhaps the following analogy is appropriate. Neanderthals stored information in the form of files, while modern humans store it in the form of a database.

P.P.S. Causal relationships are presented as follows:
1. The gradual increase in the brain in the human evolutionary series led to a large increase in energy costs for its maintenance. The transition to the next stage with an even larger brain has become impossible or less profitable in comparison with another development option for energy reasons.
2. With another reorganization of the genome, caused by an increase in the level of cosmic irradiation of the Earth's surface, a variant of the genome arose with an increased number of neural connections in the brain, which made it possible to move on to more advanced abstract thinking.
3. This version of the development of the genome was fixed in the population due to selection, since it gave huge advantages to its carriers.

P.P.P.S. The development of the tongue was also associated with such changes compared to the Neanderthal structure as the appearance of a chin protrusion and a decrease in the massiveness of the lower jaw. The decrease in the massiveness of the lower jaw, in turn, led to the need to reduce the occipital region of the skull in order to maintain the overall balance of the head. The head began to acquire modern features - higher than those of our predecessors - Neanderthals, arch and forehead, and a shorter length. In Neanderthals, the skull had relatively large longitudinal dimensions (length), i.e. they were dolichocephalic.

P.P.P.P.S. Perhaps there is another reason why the frontal lobes of the brain are better developed in modern humans than in Neanderthals, while the occipital lobes, on the contrary, are less developed in modern humans. The fact is that the occipital regions of the brain directly process the incoming visual information, while the frontal lobes are responsible for predicting, modeling the situation in the future, i.e. are responsible for situation analysis, prognosis and imagination. The frontal lobes are constantly playing microclips of our future.
Due to the fact that the occipital regions of the Neanderthal were better developed than ours, it can be assumed that the visual memory of the Neanderthal was better developed. However, planning and forecasting were given to him worse than to us, due to the underdevelopment of the frontal lobes of the brain. Is the development of our frontal lobes connected with abstract thinking? Does abstract thinking help to better model the situation? It seems that yes.

There is no movement, said the bearded sage.
The other was silent and began to walk before him.
He could not have objected more strongly;
All praised the convoluted answer.
But, gentlemen, this is a funny case
Another example comes to mind:
After all, every day the sun walks before us,
However, the stubborn Galileo is right.
(A.S. Pushkin)

Who is right, gentlemen? Our stubborn Galileo, who knows (sic!) that the Neanderthals "were not human"?

The problem is that a lot of people really think that way. Or rather, they believe it. There is no point in arguing, I will give only a few facts.

1. Classical Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia Minor for about 40 thousand years (period 80-35 thousand years ago). Climatic conditions were more severe than now.
0. Modern man exists for only 15 thousand years (will it last 40?)

1. The volume of the brain of classical Neanderthals was about 1500-1800 cc.
0. The average volume of the brain of a modern person is about 1400 cubic meters. cm (Australoids 1200, Caucasians and Mongoloids up to 1600).
Next, I combined the reconstructions of Neanderthals with portraits of modern humans.

And here are the bearded wise men (yes, you are not looking at the mind, but at the middle floor of the face!)

Norris' resemblance to Neanderthals, it turns out, I'm not the only one to note (.).

About a hundred years ago, an ancient man had to look like that.

Modern Templates mass culture not far removed from the image of the "ape-man". In order for the mass audience to recognize the "cave dweller", it is necessary to make him homeless: shaggy, dirty and grimacing!

It is advisable to goggle your eyes: "Horror, how I'm afraid of the entih of their skulls!"

And don't be afraid of skulls. They need to be considered more closely. Here from left to right: Neanderthal - modern man (Cro-Magnonoid or Eastern Paleo-Caucasoid) - modern man (Australoid) - modern man (Northern Caucasoid). The Neanderthal skull is knocked out of this row, but not too much. Differences from the Australoid will be noticed only by a trained eye.

Then there will be no need to do such "dioxin" reconstructions ...
(NB: we have no politics - only gestalt anthropology)

Here is a map of Neanderthal finds. It can be seen that they lived in Europe and Asia Minor, in mountainous regions with a rather harsh climate.

In the Holocene, in our time, the mountainous regions of Europe are no longer inhabited by Neanderthals, but by people of the Paleo-European and Balkan-Caucasian race. Are they very different? Judge for yourself. On the left is a reconstruction of a Neanderthal, on the right is a young Pakistani.

On the left is a representative of the Caucasian type, on the right is a Paleo-European type.

On the left - a modern inhabitant of Western Asia, on the right - the Neanderthal period. And what bandanas they have!

On the sides - modern inhabitants of Western Asia, in the center - a classic Neanderthal (museum reconstruction).

This reconstruction of a Neanderthal I had to modify a little. However, the "citizen chief" of him turned out to be unimportant - clearly a disguised proletarian ... Still, high posts in our country are more often occupied by northern Caucasians or graceful Mediterraneans.

The skull of the Neanderthal (on the right) is prettier than that of the Australoid, but it is more archaic: the maxillae are more massive, the chin is sloping, the forehead is low (the back of the head and base have their own differences).

With Australoids, the situation is unusual. Their anthropological indicators (thickness of bones, width of the dental arch, height of the vault of the skull, etc.) are more "sapient" than the Neanderthals. The absence of a genetic hiatus makes them undeniably Homo sapiens recens.
However, the Australoid species is even more ancient than that of the Neanderthals - their gestalt is closer to Homo erectus. As well as the volume of the brain, which is SIGNIFICANTLY less than the Neanderthal (about 30%).

Personally, I treat Neanderthals with respect (albeit without love). And I have my own, secret idea about them.

My intuition (based on education and ecological extrapolations) tells me that Neanderthals were quite extraordinary creatures - Europeans after all! In terms of lifestyle, they are similar to the Arctic natives (who in pre-civilized times were almost the most advanced group in their race). The Neanderthals had a developed instrumental and magical culture with burials.

Classical Neanderthals are a strong branch of the human continuum, which has gone through its own, rather intensive evolution in parallel channels. During which Neanderthals took new refreshing genes and were selected. They did not die out at all, but still live - and not bad: where the climate and soils are perhaps the best on the planet. And the northern Caucasians have been trying for thousands of years to win back at least an inch of these territories from them. Arrange campaigns, shoot, bomb. While in vain!