Nowadays, modern humans are the only game in town. There are still chimpanzees and bonobos, but all the other walking-upright primates have gone extinct. The last Neanderthal vanished about 40,000 years ago; the last Denisovan 50,000 years ago. These are just educated guesses, however. There’s some evidence that smaller, isolated pockets of Neanderthals survived until 25,000 years ago, and the Denisovans might’ve persevered in New Guinea until just 15,000 years ago — and are still remembered in folklore and oral traditions. We just don’t have enough physical evidence to prove it.
A third group, the Homo floresiensis, lasted in Indonesia until 50,000 years ago, and might’ve been a surviving group of an even older archaic species, the Homo erectus.
But why did they all go extinct? These species were extraordinarily successful for a very long time, yet they all went extinct around the same general timeframe. What happened?
Nobody knows.
All we know for certain is that we coexisted and mated. For about 2,600 to 5,400 years in Europe, Neanderthals and Humans interacted, intermingled and interbred. Even today, virtually all humans outside of sub-Saharan Africa have about 2% Neanderthal DNA. Among Melanesians (Papua New Guinea and Bougainville Islands), about 5% of their DNA is from Denisovans. Depending on how you look at it, perhaps the Neanderthals and Denisovans never went extinct at all; they’re still here, living within this strange, hybrid species known colloquially as a “modern human.”
We still know very little about the Denisovans and the Homo floresiensis. About the former, we don’t have any complete skeletons; just a few bone and teeth fragments that we can DNA test. The culture and lifestyle of both remain a near-total mystery. We only discovered Homo floresiensis fossils in 2003; Denisovans in 2010.
But we’ve already learned a great deal about the Neanderthals. We know they were stronger and more powerful than humans. They might’ve been smarter, too: Their brains are larger. Now, bigger brains don’t always correlate to higher intelligence, so it’s not a certainty that they could out-think and out-plan us. It does indicate that they required more caloric content to survive, since the brain is a very expensive organ to run. According to some estimates, Neanderthals needed 350 extra calories each day to feed their larger brains — not an insurmountable total, but enough to stress an ecosystem during times of famine. Paradoxically, their bigger brains could’ve been their downfall.
We also know Neanderthals were capable of art and music. Their caves are filled with gorgeous paintings, and we’ve discovered the remains of a bone that was converted into a flute. We’ve also uncovered the bones of Neanderthal men and women who had survived debilitating injuries during their youth and still made it to middle age, which indicates they were “humane” enough to care for the wounded. Numerous times, bodies have been buried with rare flowers, shells, and eagle feathers, which seems to demonstrate a sense of spirituality.
As far as we can tell, there’s no genetic reason why Neanderthals couldn’t prosper and be as successful as humans. They had the brains, the tools, and most of the same advantages we had.
But they weren’t successful: They’re all gone.
Weirdly, for hundreds of thousands of years, the Neanderthal lifestyle changed very little. Neanderthals lived in Europe for over 350,000 years, but when archeologists analyze settlements that are 200,000 years apart, they’re virtually identical. It was as if their culture disallowed progress and growth. In fact, it wasn’t until modern humans began arriving in Europe between 54,000 to 43,000 years ago that Neanderthal settlements began finally showing evidence of cultural improvements. We still don’t know why this is.
But for those invading humans to successfully supplant the entire Neanderthal population — exiling them from their homes, conquering their land, stealing their resources, and driving them to extinction — they needed some kind of advantage. A superweapon.
After all, the Neanderthals were bigger and stronger. They might’ve been smarter. They had homefield advantage and knew the terrain like the back of their hand: All the animals to hunt, all the best fishing spots, all the ways to survive winter. They evolved specifically for this environment; it was their home for 350,000 years!
And then, a few thousand years later, they all vanished from the earth. Whoosh!
One theory of what might’ve given humans the upper-hand is a helpful paw: The faithful dog.
We don’t know when dogs were first domesticated. Some experts believe it was only 15,000 years ago, but others put the timeline at 40,000 years ago, or even longer. The two oldest known dog skeletons were found in a Belgium cave and in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, dating back 33,000 years ago.
Either way, the bond between humans and wolves-turned-dogs predates agriculture and the invention of the wheel. It’s one of the oddest partnerships in Mother Nature: A symbiotic connection between two very different species — but one that allows both man and dog to overcome life-and-death adversity.
In the hands of a human, a domesticated dog would be tantamount to a superweapon — a technological breakthrough that equipped modern humans with night vision, an alarm system, a hunting partner, a warm body on a cold night, and even provided self-defense. Humans with spears fighting against Neanderthals with spears might be a close match, but when dogs are added to the mix, it’s a strategic mismatch.
A human settlement protected by guard dogs would be almost impossible for Neanderthal invaders to sneak-attack. But even if both populations were perfectly peaceful — which seems unlikely, knowing what we do about our history — a human hunting with a dog will outcompete a Neanderthal without one. And if Neanderthal brains also required more calories, this imbalance could have serious consequences.
It's an interesting theory, and I like it, but really, the only evidence for it is a convenient time line. A lot of changes happened during that time period.
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