WEBVTT - Neanderthals: Death of a Human Species | Reviving a Mobit 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.719 During the earliest days of this millennium, I took part 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:13.039 in the Kind of History series, an ambitious survey that 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:18.599 explored milestones in American culture decade by decade. Of course 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:25.920 I'm talking about and after. I loved the eighties there 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:39.440 was and really who could forget? What made Dynasty wick 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:42.640 was the campfights. Yeah, he went from John Cougar to 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.360 John Cougar Mellencamp and I thought, did he get married? 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.440 John Travolta's asked Urban Cowboy is that there should be 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:50.320 a shrine built too. 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.080 It was a classy show featuring a panoply of commentators, 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.520 and I was one of them, pondering complex topics like 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.200 nineteen eighties hospit dramas. 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:01.960 Saying elsewhere. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:06.479 It was an hour long drama. It starred Mark Harman 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.240 as doctor Bobby Caldwell. Comedian and actor Michael Ian Black 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:12.560 was another contributor. 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.480 I thought, if anything, the title That's Incredible was an 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.120 understatement of how incredible the things on That's Incredible were. 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.640 We didn't really know each other back then, but I 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.360 distinctly remember his take on the nineteen eighty one Neanderthal 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:30.200 epic Quest for Fire. While most of us were obsessed 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.960 with the film's nudity. Michael took the high road. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.560 I was really looking at it more from an anthropological 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.840 point of view than to see Raydon Jones. 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:46.160 Tataz And it's that prehistory that's our subject to this episode. 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:50.520 Since Quest for Fire, we've learned some stunning truths about Neanderthals, 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:53.400 and I knew who. I wanted to discuss this topic 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:58.280 with my friend Michael ian Black back when we were 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.400 loving the eighties. Neither of us knew just how connected 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:05.600 he is to our human cousins of four thousand decades ago. 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.919 If they had told me only how much Neanderthal I am, 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.440 I would have paid twice the amount for the test. 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:25.160 I'm Morocca. And this is mobituaries, This mobid Neanderthals circa 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:34.079 forty thousand years ago. Death of a human species. Okay, first, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.840 let's take care of some basics. The name Neanderthal comes 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.680 from the neander Valley in Germany, where one of the 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.520 first Neanderthal skulls was found in eighteen fifty six. At 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.360 the time, the fossil was misidentified as the skull of 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.600 a Cossack soldier from the Napoleonic Wars. They were only 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.520 off by a few tens of thousands of years now. 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:59.400 Neanderthals were also human, but a separate species Homo sapiens. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.560 That's us and Neanderthals did share a common ancestor over 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.400 half a million years ago. Homo sapiens would go on 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:11.519 to flourish in Africa, while Neanderthals roamed across Europe and Asia, 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.680 adapting to a colder, harsher climate. Eventually the two species 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.720 did meet up. Then, about thirty to forty thousand years ago, 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:26.000 Neanderthals disappeared without a trace, or so we thought, which 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.959 brings me to my guest, Michael Ian Black. So, Michael 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.440 Ian Black, thank you so much for joining me for 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:33.240 this whole episode. 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:33.960 My pleasure. 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:36.160 Let's get the promotion out of the way first, because 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.320 it's deserved. Your podcast, How to Be Amazing is amazing. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.200 Yes, you can be on it, mo, Yes, that's where 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:45.040 I was going. 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.400 So years ago I interviewed you about your one of 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.480 your books, Naval Gazing, and in it you talked about 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:59.120 genetic testing and why did you go about investigating your 0:03:59.160 --> 0:03:59.960 genetic makeup? 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.160 I think the same reason most people do, just curiosity. 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:09.080 I just wanted to know genetically speaking who I am. 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.480 I had it in my head that I must be 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.440 at least a pastiche of things, some kind of milange. 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.640 I was hoping to find some African American, some Native American, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:26.760 but the results were so disappointingly kind of exactly what 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.279 I had been led to believe, which is that I 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.200 am a one hundred percent Ashkanazi Jew. 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.080 I do think the food is better than Sephardic food. 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:40.159 Delicious, delicious if you just take the gefilter fish out 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.880 of that which I have always associated and will always 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:47.320 associate with just jellied cat turns. 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.599 But you say you found out you were one hundred 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.760 percent Ashkanazi Jew, But that's not quite right. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:58.960 Well, it is in terms of ethicity, But there was 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.400 also a which I didn't know till I got it 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.040 back from the company, that says it will also tell 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:12.560 you your Neanderthal percentages. If they had told me only 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.239 how much Neanderthal I am, I would have paid twice 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:17.520 the amount for the test, because for some reason, that 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.160 just really captured my imagination to think, oh, I may 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:25.640 be part of an entirely different species. That was thrilling 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:27.800 to me. And I didn't know that they had developed 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.760 the test, and I found out that I am two 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:37.400 point nine percent Neanderthal, which is greater than the norm. 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.679 The average is a two point seven percent. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:42.400 Okay, that's a significant difference. 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:46.000 I mean, I can't tell you how delighted I was 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.760 to hear this, because your listeners can't see me, but 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.400 you can probably tell by the way I speak and 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.920 the timber of my voice that I am not the 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:57.920 most masculine of fellows. 0:05:58.480 --> 0:05:59.120 But I. 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.520 Mean, I mean, I'm tolerant, but to a point. 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.120 But just the popular image of the Neanderthal as a 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:14.760 lumbering brute, as this strong survivor out on the steps 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.719 in planes just thrilled me to no end. And so 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.960 I was delighted. And I told my wife that I 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:26.440 am above averagely Neanderthal, and she said, that's why you 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.520 look like that, and she did not mean it as 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:29.080 a compliment. 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.599 And let me just say that Martha is highly evolved. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.120 She's basically Daryl Hannah and Clana the cave bear. I mean, 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:39.640 a highly evalved, leggy blonde. 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:40.359 Yes she is. 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.520 But wait, wait, hold on. When you describe Neanderthals as 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:48.080 masculine lumbering brutes, you're making certain assumptions and we'll dispel 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.080 some of these in this episode. For instance, how do 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.120 we know there weren't cultured episcene Neanderthals. 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.760 Well, I think we do know, now you are doing 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:58.359 the research, and I'm just speaking off the top of 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.640 my head. Now they were kindessurs of fine wine. Is 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.320 my understanding. They did puppet shows. 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.719 Oh, Michael, we've got some work to do. Think of 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.760 me as your Henry Lewis Gates and this is finding 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.880 your roots, or as Lisa Caudreaux and this is who 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:14.480 do you think you are? I think that's her show. 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.200 I want you to know that your Neanderthal ancestors were 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.560 pretty darn special and not as different from us normal 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.240 people as you may think. So how did they get 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:34.840 such a bad rap? Let's find out. I grew up 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.480 with so many classic TV shows and films about Neanderthals 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.800 and cavemen, and they pretty much all got it wrong. 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.240 In nineteen eighty one, there was the aforementioned Quest for Fire. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:52.920 The characters basically just plump through the whole movie, except 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:54.640 when one of them gets beamed in the head by 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:02.760 a rock and then everyone laughs. That same year, moviegoers 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:09.000 were subjected to the Ringo Star vehicle caveman Bobo Bobo. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.720 During the course of the movie, a bunch of bumbling 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:18.480 cavemen discover fire, how to light farts on fire, and 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:26.680 jam bands and who could forget the mel blank voiced 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:35.679 cartoon character. But as far as portrayals of the primordial 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.560 go the show that had the biggest impact on me 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.800 was Land of the Lost. The theme song told the 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:47.240 story of the series. It's about a family on a 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:51.520 river rafting trip. During the ride, they go down a 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:55.680 magical waterfall and enter a universe filled with dinosaurs and 0:08:55.840 --> 0:09:02.400 cave creatures. 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.520 Hi, I'm Phil Paley and I played Chaka on the 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:09.760 seventies show Land of the Lost. 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.760 You were only nine years old when he got this role. 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:14.200 Tell us about the character. 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:20.200 Chaka was the youngest of the Pakuni clan. What do 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:20.920 you think he is. 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:25.880 I'm kind of a Cayman, a monkey or what Chakkaka. 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:30.959 I wore a prosthetic head piece, so it had a 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.840 very prominent brow and forehead, so it did kind of 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.040 look neanderthal ish. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.920 I guess back when I watched the show, I kind 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.200 of assumed Chaka was a Neanderthal, But looking back at 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.720 the clips now he seems more monkey boy free all over, 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:47.960 except for his face. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.360 The suit was made out of like nylon pantihose material 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.160 with a real human hair hands sewn into it, so 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:55.160 it made it kind of itchy. 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.960 Luckily, there are some people who know the difference between 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.240 Saturday morning science fiction and real science. 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:07.800 Anything that depicts Neanderthals as basically bad hair, that's what 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:08.600 I laugh about. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.920 Professor John Hawks from the University of Wisconsin at eau 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.200 Claire is one of the world's leading experts on Neanderthals. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:20.480 Why have Neanderthals had such a bad reputation. 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.719 The Neanderthals are a group that doesn't have an advocacy. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:28.720 They don't have a lobby. You know, there's there's not 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:33.640 Neanderthal representatives calling their congressmen and so as a consequence, 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.600 if you thought something bad about the past, you know, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.040 they were a convenient group because they weren't going to complain. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.760 It's so easy to use Geico dot com. A caveman 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:44.360 could do it. 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:44.679 What. 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.120 Oh no, I'm not cool. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:49.560 I did not know you were there. 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.360 The Neanderthals in those Geico commercials might be funny, but 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.400 make no mistake, we're laughing at them. So how did 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.680 this stereotyping of me Anderthals as a brutish, howling and 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:07.200 stupid get started. John Hawkes says it may have begun 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:12.440 with a nineteenth century German biologist named Ernst Heckel, who 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.520 attempted to map a genealogical tree of all living things. 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.400 When he came to early versions of us, he had 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.480 no fossils to study. It was pretty much just guesswork. 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.559 He chose a rather insulting classification. 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.320 The name that he had for the predecessor of humans 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.599 that would be the Neanderthals basically was Homo's stupidness. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:37.679 Yes, Homo's stupidness, But it was the French who really 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.040 gave Neanderthals a bad name. In nineteen oh eight, a 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.960 nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton was found in a cave in 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:49.520 the town of La Chapelle au Saine. Paleontologist Marcel Bull 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:54.120 analyzed the remains of this individual and made sweeping and 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:58.240 hugely influential assumptions about the entire species. 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.240 The image that came out of his work was hairy 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:08.760 and pretty ape like, with displayed toes and a slouching, 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:10.559 hunched posture. 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.839 Kate Wong is a writer for Scientific American, And what. 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.959 Researchers later determined was that this was an older individual, 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:26.120 this Neanderthal, who had suffered from severe arthritis. So all 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.080 of the sort of features that led Bull to assume 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:34.120 that the species had these slouched, stooped traits were actually 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:35.400 the result of disease. 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.560 That is really hilarious to me, isn't it wild? And 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.199 I've wondered about that before, Like, when you find an 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.880 individual species of something, what if you're finding a weird 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.920 member of that species and it turns out that's exactly 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:49.559 what happened with the Neanderthals. 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.160 Totally an agreement of fascinating and hilarious. But hold on, 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.840 there's more. The old Man of La Chappelle, as he 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.439 came to be known, became the public's picture of neanders 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:01.679 for generations. 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:06.200 They were the archetypal cave people, and that image, unfortunate, 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.200 has stuck with the Neanderthals over one hundred years later. 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.040 Professor Chris Stringer, the research leader at the Natural History 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.240 Museum in London, tells me part of the problem was 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.400 that in the early twentieth century we didn't understand how 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:20.760 evolution worked. 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.640 There was this rather simplistic idea that they would be 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:27.120 missing links to be found in the story of human evolution. 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:29.679 And it was because we were so fixated on the 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.920 idea of a missing link that we typecast Neanderthals into 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.560 the role of a half ape, half human caveman lah 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:44.360 atuk lor. But thanks to the rapid advancement and the 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.320 study of archaic humans, the image of the Neanderthal is 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:52.960 finally changing. To be sure, Neanderthals were different from us 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:57.320 in appearance. The pronounced brow ridge and sloping forehead in 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.720 those Geico commercials weren't tramped up by making up artists. 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.640 So our brain case shape is rather globular, sometimes described 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:09.080 as like a sockaball. The Neanderthal cranial shape was longer 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:09.800 and lower. 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.880 In fact, the Neanderthal brain was bigger than ours, as 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:15.520 was the Neanderthal schnarz. 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.400 We guess that the whole nose would have been broader. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.240 They certainly seem to have had a nose that was 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:26.160 capable of very very heavy breathing. It may also have 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.640 served a function of warming up and humidifying the air 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.400 when they were living in relatively colder and drier conditions. 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.080 They were stockier too, with rib cages that flared out 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.520 and shorter limbs better for conserving heat. But recent studies 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.680 on the Neanderthal thorax suggest that they might have walked 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.560 even more upright than we do. As for what they 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:52.280 sounded like, Neanderthal voices might have been higher pitched than ours. 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.040 Listen to this simulation from the BBC. 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.520 Let's just add a bit of nasal, now. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:01.440 Push into me. 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.440 This is actually getting him right into his body, now speak. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:12.200 No, that isn't a monty bygone sketch. It's a serious demonstration. 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.400 But aside from the physical, what's really surprising is how 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:21.800 on par Neanderthals were with us cognitively and creatively. 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.760 They made a lot of the same kinds of tools 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:30.920 they had fire, They decorated their bodies with jewelry made 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:38.720 from shells, eagle talons, animal teeth, all sorts of fabulous accouterment. 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:44.240 Some of these discoveries of them using feathers systematically and 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:49.120 collecting predominantly the feathers of very dark black birds. We 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.160 talk about it as Neanderthal goth because it seems like 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.480 they preferred these dark raptors and dark crows and ravens 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:56.240 and that sort of thing. 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:02.440 Some scientists speculate that underthals saw power in these dark 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.600 birds and thought they'd be imbued with that power if 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.800 they wore those feathers. And if you're picturing share in 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.040 bob ackeye at the nineteen eighty six oscars, I am too. 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.560 And within just the past few years researchers found the 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:22.800 first ever Neanderthal cave paintings and etchings, which reveal inn 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.080 early interest in social media. 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.920 There's a great place in Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar that 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:34.760 has this what we call the Neanderthal hashtag because it 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:39.240 looks like that pound sign that is scratched onto the 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:46.120 floor of the cave. What it means, what it meant 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:50.080 to them, we have no idea, but it shows us 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:53.920 some sign from the past that these were thinking beings. 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.920 They were conveying something through their use of markings, through 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:03.160 the use of ornaments, and that something was social. It 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.680 was something about what they had to say to other individuals, 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.600 what they had to communicate about themselves. 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.360 And when it came to hunting, Neanderthals were pretty crafty. 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.600 To attach tips to their spears, they made their own glue. 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.280 In order to do that, you have to take birch 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:26.240 bark and smoke it down, reduce it at high temperature 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.159 so that the sap inside of it condenses into the 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.440 sticky pitch, and that in the end makes a very 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.480 very tiny amount of this. So you've got to do 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:38.440 this many times to concentrate it. Neanderthals managed that process. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.119 If I had to assign an engineering class to figure 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.560 out how this was done, they would have a hard 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.280 time of it. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.120 All to say that Neanderthals weren't the least bit stupidous, 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:58.520 and neither was Chaka. And the Pecuni had a language. 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:03.040 It was developed by a UCLA language professor by the 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:04.520 name of Victoria Frompkin. 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:09.560 After all these years, Philip Paley can still say some 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:10.920 phrases in Paku. 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.560 Well, these are classic ones. Mangou sarisa taka and that 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.600 means beware of sleestak. 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:18.919 With an important warning. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:24.879 Very and uh, there's also oh gunza bisasa what does 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:26.800 that mean? Big magic? 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:37.640 I love? Who doesn't love big magic? We're back with 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.560 Michele and Black talking about what it really means to 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:41.359 be Neanderthal. 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:46.320 But I mean they were capable of language that we 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.320 learned that right, right, But I thought you were just belging. No, No, 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.320 I was just grunting in the Neanderthal Neanderthal like way. 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.399 We should have done that at the top of the episode. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.600 So there are two different ways to do it. I 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.800 like saying Neanderthal. There are some people that will say 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.000 neander Tal. So you are welcome. You can go back 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.200 and forth. You can switch over to Neanderthal if you want. 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.560 I am now forever more going to pronounce it neander Tall. 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.359 Okay, so that's this scud. We're going to do a 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.240 split on this, and I'm going to stick with Neanderthal. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.040 You stick with meandertall, and then everybody will be satisfied. Yeah. 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:20.399 Did you like Land of the Loss? 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.000 Loved it. There were these uh sid and Marty Croft shows, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.920 and in my memory, that was the only tolerable one, Right, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:30.280 I loved it. Yeah. 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.359 I'm older than you are, so when I watched it, 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:34.439 I could tell it was pretty cheaply done. But I 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:36.959 like the opening credits. That's what I like because it 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:38.119 just seemed really exciting. 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.320 Uh yeah, to me, there was nothing cheap about it. 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.440 It was as real as real. 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:47.480 Gets rewatching a little bit of Captain Caveman that cartoon, 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.720 I remember that I was kind of attracted to Captain Caveman. 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:56.960 I just there was something. Maybe it was I don't 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.760 know anyway, And now would I go back and look 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:01.280 at it. I think it's kind of weird because he 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:03.720 looks like a testicle basically. 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:05.400 Well, then that explains your attraction. 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:06.480 Thank you. 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:14.360 So so, Michael. Now that we've established that Neanderthals were 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.800 intelligent and surprisingly similar to modern humans, that raises the 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:23.560 question why did Neanderthals go extinct? Now there are various 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.840 theories on this. First up, Professor Michael Stabwasser from the 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.080 University of Cologne in Germany. 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:34.159 My specialty is a subject called isotope geochemistry. 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:36.960 Oh, he's got my old position. That's what I did before. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:38.919 Exactly Is this awkward for you? 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:39.160 No? 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.440 No, no, okay, I mean you know, so I asked 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.959 him what he actually does. It's almost like you're a 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.240 weatherman for the ancient times. 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:49.760 Yes, you could say that. 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.120 Yes, he didn't really like that line, as it could 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:56.080 tell anyway. He thinks it's climate change that did in 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.639 the Neanderthals. By studying stalagmites in caves, he determined that 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.199 during their last fifty thousand years on Earth, the average 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.920 temperature in the Danube Valley, one of the places where 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.280 Neanderthals lived, was much colder than it is now. It 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.720 was about thirty nine degrees fahrenheit. But and this is crucial, 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.880 during that period there were these cold snaps that would 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:19.480 ultimately seal their fate. 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:24.280 They lasted something between a century and a millennium on average. 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.919 They usually led to temperature jobs which could be up 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.280 to let's say, six to eight degrees today. It may 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.080 not sound drastic, but it makes the difference between being 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:36.640 able to grow crops or not. 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:39.440 And if you can't eat, you're going to die. 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:47.120 And then as climate recovered, modern humans basically resettled an 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:48.840 empty area more or less. 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.240 So he isn't saying that modern humans were better adapted 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:54.320 to these cold temperatures than the Neanderthals. I think the 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:57.480 point he's making is that the extinction of Neanderthals was 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.440 pretty much bad timing, wrong place, wrong time. 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:05.480 But they had existed for millennia up until this point 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:09.800 in the average temperature as it's going down could have 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:13.240 forced them south into warmer climates, but it seems like 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:13.959 it didn't do that. 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:15.960 I know, I don't know why. 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:17.399 This feels like a very. 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.240 Dumb theory, which is why we have another theory for 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:24.200 you on why me Anderthals died off. 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:24.840 Okay, good. 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.119 You remember Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum in London. 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:32.680 He thinks the small population of Neanderthals was essentially swallowed 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.000 up by modern humans. Some experts estimate that at tops 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.520 there were only about fifty thousand Neanderthals spread all across 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:41.480 the Eurasia. There just weren't that many of them. 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:45.160 The Neanderthals were relatively low in numbers, and I think 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:47.800 that it probably wouldn't have taken much to push them 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:50.639 over the edge to extinction, and maybe the appearance of 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.800 modern humans as a competitor was sufficient to do that. 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:55.600 But of course that's just a guess. 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:58.720 Yeah, well that sound that just sounds like the most 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:03.240 likely explanation. There was a sharknado of humans that came 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:07.720 in and just wiped them out. I mean, we have 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:10.840 a habit of doing that. That's kind of what we do. 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:16.520 It's who we are. But who we are isn't who 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:23.520 we used to think we are. Of course, Neanderthals aren't 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:27.720 really gone. They live in you, Michael and so many others. 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:33.520 Let's find out what that means today. What does it 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:37.399 mean to have within our genetic code a certain percentage 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:41.360 of Neanderthal DNA? I wanted to find out, so I'm 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:43.840 heading to New Jersey to talk to one of the 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:45.520 foremost experts in the field. 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:49.040 My name is josh Aiky and I'm a professor in 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:52.160 the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the Lewis 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:55.679 Zigler Institute for integrit Genomics at Princeton University. 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:57.120 And you did that all in one breath. 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:00.960 With twenty three and meters, you can discover where in 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:02.480 the world your DNA comes from. 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:06.280 An unforgettable gift. My heritage DNA order your kid. 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:08.400 At AncestryDNA dot com. 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:11.720 I spoke to Professor Ake about what these DNA kits 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:14.239 can tell us. It's one thing to find out that 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:18.120 from one of these mail order things that you're ten 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:23.200