The Neanderthals
Another human species that lived here for 400,000 years
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Sima de los Huesos at Atapuerca has yielded over 6,000 fossils from at least 28 individuals, and DNA from them shows Neanderthal traits already 430,000 years ago. Genome sequencing led by Svante Pääbo, which won the 2022 Nobel Prize, showed that people outside Africa carry around 2 per cent Neanderthal DNA — some variants still affecting immunity and metabolism. Denisovans, known almost entirely from genetics and a finger bone, contributed comparably in East Asia and Oceania. Why Neanderthals disappeared is unresolved: competition, climate swings, low population density and absorption through interbreeding have all been proposed.
For children
In Europe and western Asia another human species lived for nearly 400,000 years. Neanderthals were more powerfully built than us, had brains just as large, made tools, used fire and buried their dead. They disappeared around 40,000 years ago — but they are not entirely gone: you probably carry some of their DNA.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org