A surprising discovery by German scientists showed that Neanderthals possessed the same set of speech genes as humans. Since the same regions of the genome are associated with wisdom and the accumulation of knowledge, it may turn out that primitive people had their own formed ideas about culture, history and power
The decoding of the Neanderthal genome, carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, is gradually beginning to reveal to scientists the secrets of life in the Stone Age. The discovery of developed speech among Neanderthals completely changes the idea of this race.
“Previously, stupid and ignorant people were called Neanderthal, but now we will have to reconsider this attitude towards cave people. We found that this race is much closer to humans than all types of monkeys, - says Professor Svante Paabo, who leads the decoding of the genome. - Human variation of the language gene allows us to use speech, unlike great apes.
For a long time, it was believed that the genome of the Neanderthal is very different from the human, therefore, if these inhabitants of the Stone Age had linguistic abilities, then they should have expressed themselves differently. Our research has shown that there is no reason to claim that Neanderthals did not know how to speak - in any case, they had a genetically inherent ability to do so.
Indeed, it is reliably known that the discovered gene, named FOX P 2, provides a living being with the ability to speak and recognize speech, although it is still impossible to say unambiguously that primitive people used it. F OXP 2 is responsible for controlling the muscles of the verbal apparatus, the degree of development of which is still difficult to judge.
Professor Paabo and his colleagues compiled the first deciphering of the Neanderthal genome using the remains of nine creatures found in caves in northern Spain. About 42,000 years ago, these poor fellows were killed and eaten by members of the cannibal tribe. In addition, the research used the skeleton of a Neanderthal child found in Uzbekistan and the remains of an adult from southern Siberia.
The discovery of a gene, the existence of which was previously confirmed only in humans, leads anthropologists to think about the possibility of crossing different species of ancient people, as a result of which Homo Spaiens appeared. Against this theory is the fact that most "mules" (offspring of crossbreeding) are born sterile.
On the other hand, do not forget that Neanderthals are the "cousins" of our Cro-Magnon ancestors, which means that these two races had common ancestors, from which they could receive the same set of genes. Dwarf ancestors of humans - hominids - scattered all over the Earth may be the connecting link that will prove the relationship between Homo Sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis.
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