Jul 27, 20223 min read

Let's talk about the Neanderthals 🦴

Hi! Before we jump into the script for this TikTok, I think it's worth explaining how this video came about. In the final year of my undergraduate degree, we were tasked with writing an "article" on a science topic we had no prior knowledge about. After a great deal of deliberation, I chose Neanderthals, and spent a good month or so researching and writing about them for the assignment. I totally fell in love with the species in the process, and had so many of my previous misconceptions challenged. I even trekked to the British Museum in London to meet a lifesized, scientifically accurate recreation of one (see below)!

I started my TikTok at around the same time as I was working on this assignment. But even though I'd planned for my videos to be solely about physics and space, I felt that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a video sharing my new-found knowledge about these wonderful humans. I was shocked that the video did so well, but I was over the moon to find that something which had captured my imagination so unexpectedly had had the same effect on so many others.

At a little over 5000 words, the full article I wrote as part of my degree expands on all of the points I made in my TikTok, and discusses lots more! If that sounds up your street, I've made it available here! [note: its a bit easier to read if viewed on a computer as opposed to a phone screen]

In Germany, 1856, a set of bones was discovered that looked strikingly similar but hauntingly different to ourselves. 8 years later, the bones were declared to belong to an extinct, ancient human species: Homo Neanderthalensis (or "Neanderthals" for short). But who were these ancient people? What was their life like? And where did they go?

Let's talk about the Neanderthals.

Since the discovery of Neanderthal 1, thousands of Neanderthal fossils have been found. This has allowed paleoanthropologists (scientists who study ancient humans) to piece together a picture of the species:

Fossil locations, coupled with the dating of these fossils suggests that they lived in Europe and Asia, from 400 000 to 40 000 years ago, at which point they went extinct.
Studying their skeletons reveals that they looked a bit different to us, with longer, lower skulls, more pronounced brow ridges, and a large upper jaw.
They were also a bit shorter than us, but much stronger, with thicker skin and hair to survive cold European winters (we can tell this from their DNA).
By studying the tartar found on Neanderthal teeth, we know they ate large mammals, plants, fungi, and even mussels, seals and dolphins.
They could make fire, liked close-range hunting, and had primitive clothing.
Evidence suggests they also cared for their injured or ill, buried their dead, and liked to wear jewellery.
They might have even been into music or art.
We aren't sure if they had language, but their anatomy suggests they could speak, and their lifestyle seems to imply it.

Therefore, all of this evidence now shows that Neanderthals were much more creative, intelligent, caring and sophisticated than we used to give them credit for!