Why Are We The Only Humans Left?
7,734,691
Published 2017-04-25
Try 23andMe at: www.23andme.com/okay
Part 2 of our special series on Human Ancestry. Watch it all: bit.ly/OKTBSHuman
↓↓↓More info and sources below ↓↓↓
In part 2 of our special series on human ancestry, we ask why we are the only surviving branch on the human evolutionary tree. Just 50,000-100,000 years ago, Earth was home to three or four separate human species, including our most famous cousins: the Neanderthals. New research has shown that Neanderthals were not the brutish, unintelligent cavemen that cartoons make them out to be. They were creative, smart, social, and perhaps even had complex language. So why did they go extinct as soon as Homo sapiens moved into their territory? Does any trace of them live on today? Why don’t we have Neanderthal neighbors?
-----------
REFERENCES:
Papagianni, Dimitra, and Michael A. Morse. The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story. Thames & Hudson, 2015. amzn.to/2oov6GG (Library: www.worldcat.org/oclc/923279213)
Stringer, Chris. “Lone survivors: How we came to be the only humans on earth.” Macmillan, 2012. amzn.to/2oIFg3q (Library: www.worldcat.org/oclc/855581724)
Tattersall, Ian. “Masters of the planet: the search for our human origins.” Macmillan, 2012. amzn.to/2pOZrKS (Library: www.worldcat.org/oclc/733231407)
Walter, Chip. “Last ape standing: the seven-million-year story of how and why we survived.” Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2013. amzn.to/2pP2liy (Library: www.worldcat.org/oclc/872121723)
-----------
FOLLOW US:
Merch: store.dftba.com/collections/i...
Facebook: www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart
Twitter: @okaytobesmart @DrJoeHanson
Tumblr: www.itsokaytobesmart.com/
Instagram: @DrJoeHanson
Snapchat: YoDrJoe
-----------
It’s Okay To Be Smart is hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D.
Director: Joe Nicolosi
Writer: Joe Hanson
Producer/editor/animator: Andrew Matthews
Producer: Stephanie Noone and Amanda Fox
Produced by PBS Digital Studios
Music via APM
Stock images from Shutterstock www.shutterstock.com/
All Comments (21)
-
It's lonely being the only humans left. Don't you wish we still had some Neanderthal neighbors?
-
Neanderthals didn't disappear. I have one living in my house pretending to be my brother.
-
We can't even handle different skin tones now I can imagine if neanderthals were still alive
-
If we discriminate people of the same species and even put some of them in zoos back in the day, imagine what we would do to our Neanderthal cousins.
-
It would seem cool if multiple human species were living together in this day and age
-
Mankind: theres no way we're the only ones right? Reality: you killed everyone else dummy
-
maybe they became so smart they moved to space and are now laughing at us. (Where tf did you people come from. I- hello🤨 )
-
Kinda makes you wonder if some of the Others in various mythologies, Fomorians in Celtic Myths, Dwarves in Norse Mythology, etc., might be a sort of "cultural memory" of interactions with Neanderthals. A lot can change in a 50,000 year long game of Telephone.
-
4:18 we definitely killed them. We find it difficult living together with ourselves, imagine having another competition
-
Well the neanderthals made rockets already when we were just learning languages and now they live at the andromeda galaxy
-
Being a human (very rare btw), I can confidently say that my species killed all of them
-
I'm glad all the other species went extinct. Could you imagine how badly we'd be divided if you threw specieism on top of racism and sexism?
-
Definitely going in my new book called “Humanity’s biggest bruh moments.”
-
Our brain named itself the brain
-
Knowing how humans are, we probably killed most of em 😂
-
Crazy to think that so many of us are the result of two very similar species going at it.
-
During the time the two groups lived together, there was a continuous migration of new modern humans into the shared region. This was due to the population explosion happening at the time in what was a very high quality habitat in the Sahara region. What is known as source sink dynamics is enough to explain why present day humans have a much lower percentage of genes from Neanderthals. It is like mixing 1 part red paint with 99 parts blue paint, both paints are still there, but all you can see is blue. I am not sure of the figures, but I believe that 25% of Neanderthal genes are still in existence in living humans, that 4% figure is just the highest amount that has been found in any one individual.
-
“And if they were so smart, then why did they disappear after they met us?” Laughs in American colonization of the 1400s
-
Me: wants to know about my ancestors 23 and me: okay but you have to pay Me: sigh they're dead anyways right
-
This is my first time enjoying your YouTube channel. Great content! Looking forward to hearing more from you! Your video was so informative. Thank you so much!
