There are a lot of questions regarding Neanderthal man. He was our closest competitor in terms of survival in the ancient ecosystem, and he was also our closest relative in terms of genetic similarity. So why did the Neanderthal die out while humans flourished? Well, one theory is the Neanderthal went extinct because we humans killed them and ate them. That, of course, brings up a whole host of other questions.
For example, did all humans eat Neanderthals? Did we eat them to extinction, or just eat them if we happened to kill them in a fight over fire or whatever ancient peoples fought over? Who decided that they were delicious enough to cook and, for that matter, why didn’t we all die of awful cannibalism-related diseases? Were Neanderthals different enough genetically that they weren’t predisposed to give humans some precursor to Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease? Did we also eat all the missing links?
See, science can be awesome, but they never can answer the questions I really want to know. I guess I’ll have to turn to real-life caveman Ringo Starr for my answers.
Image: Daily Galaxy
Tags: Neanderthals, ancient humans, what killed the Neanderthals, ancient cannibalism, history