(7 March 2013, 11:48)Scythe13 Wrote: As usual, I'm confused.
How did they exist beyond a few generations? Something must have changed, or, they stopped teaching their children.
I don't get how they could survive long enough to reproduce and become 'a species' if they couldn't survive.
There must have been something that caused they to die. You don't exist for many years and then suddenly have no skills!
The hunting strategies of Neanderthal
viz Homo Sapiens slightly differed in their approaches. Archaeological finds (flint tools and bone) have shown the Neanderthals to have specialised in the hunting of big game animals. Neanderthal remains have shown the lifestyle of the Males to have been very harsh, with injuries common to them all. The injuries found are very similar to those experienced by modern day rodeo riders, with broken long bones and clavicles very common. The evidence suggests the Neanderthals were getting close enough to their prey animals to thrust with their spears into vital areas to kill them. The Neanderthals did not posses the spear thrower (atlatl) so had to close with the animals to be effective, this made for a short physically demanding lfe for the average Neanderthal Male. There is evidence though for the long term care of the elderly within Neanderthal communities as skeletons have been found of people who had injuries and could not care for themselves, so had to be looked after. A Neanderthal in good physical shape was a formidable person, able to get close up and dirty, and take a few hits on the way in. They had a good set of flint tools perfectly adapted to their way of life, and they had evolved physically to be adapted to the harsh Ice Age climate.
Comparing flint technology between Neanderthal and Homo Sapien it is clear that we possesed and used a wider variety of tools, this is because we used a more diverse food gathering strategy, not relient on the ability to hunt and kill large game for our main food. When the game failed we had other options for food gathering, whereas the Neanderthal had all their eggs in one basket so to speak. All it took was a little advantage in food gathering ability to tip the scales in favour of ourselves, slowly year by year we outbred and out competed the Neanderthals and drove them to extinction.
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