We ’ve heard a circumstances of different theories attempt to excuse why the intrepid Neanderthals went extinct , but this one ’s credibly the most original , if not the strangest . allot to a newfangled study , Neanderthals had extraordinarily good vision — an attribute that came at considerable disbursal .
Earlier studies showed that Neanderthals featured skull just slenderly unlike than our own , but not by much . By measuring total cranial volume , palaeontologist noticed that Neanderthals and humanity shared standardised brain volume , so they figured that the interior organization was in all likelihood the same .
But this is not the caseful , say Eiluned Pearce , Chris Stringer , and R. I. M. Dunbar , who argue that Neanderthals had a unlike visual system — one that , along with greater organic structure batch , resulted in smaller endocranial capacity compared to humans .
In other Book , Neanderthals dedicated so much major power to their visual systems that their mellow - grade processing was compromise . This prevented them from produce complex social meshing , which may have lead in their unfitness to thrive .
The BBCelaborates :
The research team explored the idea that the ascendent of Neanderthals left Africa and had to adapt to the long , dark dark and mirky days of Europe . The result was that Neanderthals evolved larger eyes and a much larger optical processing area at the back of their encephalon .
The humans that bide in Africa , on the other hand , continued to enjoy bright and beautiful days and so had no need for such an adaption . or else , these the great unwashed , our ancestors , evolved their frontal lobes , tie in with higher grade thinking , before they spread across the globe .
And because Neanderthals develop at higher latitudes , more of their brain would have been dedicate to vision and dead body controller , leave less brain to deal with other routine like social networking . As the authors note in their study , this may have dissemble their “ power to cope with fluctuating resource and cultural maintenance . ”
Check out theentire studyat the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Image : NHM .
neanderthalsPaleontologyScience
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