In times past, the human race, as we now know it, weren’t the only people on the planet. For years, the one known as Homo Sapiens had to live with other hominids such as Homo Hábilis or Erectus and they developed little by little over time.
The one that Homo Sapiens spent the longest time living with was the Neanderthal, another species of intelligent human being that became extinct hundreds of thousands of years ago, leaving man as the only inhabitant of the planet.
Despite everything, there are many investigations that suggest that Homo Sapiens had contact with species such as Neanderthals or Homo Erectus, with whom they came to live in many areas of the planet.
What differentiated Homo Sapiens from Neanderthal?
According to an investigation carried out by the Autonomous University of Madrid and the National Museum of Natural Sciences, the fossils found in the El Sidrón cave (Asturias) show that one of the great differences between these hominids, Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal, lay in The thorax.
Neanderthals needed much more air when breathing, and their physical mass was much higher. For this reason, the thorax of these hominids was much wider and wider since they had to inhale much more oxygen in each breath of air.
The study was supported by a fossil found in this Asturian cave in a perfect state of conservation and which relied on techniques such as 3D to make a much more exhaustive analysis of what was found.
How were they alike?
In this regard, until very recently it was thought that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens did not have much in common, and that their contact would have been minimal. Numerous studies confirmed that these claims were not true.
In a study on the Y chromosome, in which the CSIC participated, it showed that hybridization between sapiens and Neanderthals was possible and that DNA passed from one to the other.
This DNA analysis showed that there were genetic flows between the two hominids, a key factor in understanding human evolution. This test showed that Neanderthals were closer to Homo Sapiens than Denisovans, as was thought for many years.
For this reason, the evolutionary chain showed that both Neanderthals and sapiens had much more relationship than previously thought and that modern man had much in common with the last hominid that lived with them.
