Neanderthals' bigger eyes and bodies meant they had less brain space to dedicate to social networking, which may explain why they died out and Homo sapiens conquered the planet, a study said. rspb.royalsocie...
The climate didn't kill them. Trey lived through multiple ice ages just fine. It was the combo of a more efficient competitor and the blending into a larger populace while their own was shrinking.
You can't extrapolate what happened to native americans to what happened to neanderthals. The black plauge and other diseases we brought over came about in large urban populations. That is why livestock need a cocktail of antibiotics and chemical laced feed to counteract their close confined quarters, while wild animals and free range animals need far fewer antibiotics and chemicals.
Your hypothesis sounds interesting my friend. You could present your suggestions to professionals who work at the natural history museum and they could reply to you. It’s worth a try and see what they say.
Found on the net, a quote by Stringer, (RU-vid makes it almost impossible to give a web address): "While the largest Homo erectus brains were about 1250 ml (2 imperial pints) and modern brains average about 1200-1500 ml in volume, female Neanderthal brains were about 1300 ml and those of males about 1600 ml, extending to 1740 ml in the Amud man." Apparently Stringer feels the Amud man is a special case, (just as many modern humans today have capacities over 1500), so the two are nearly equal
Actually the ratio is measured by brain volume compared to body volume, not brain weight compared to body weight. And the figures I have found show neanderthal brain volume to be about 1800cm^3 in some cases. My own calculations have given neanderthal brain volume to be 17% larger than the human counter-part.
I disagree with the hypothesis that larger eyes necessitated a larger portion of the brain dedicated to image-processing. Many animals have large eyes and small brains, where simply detecting motion in poor light may be all the advantage that is required.
From the figures I've seen: Neanderthal brain: 1,450 cc Homo Sapien brain: 1,330 cc That is 9% larger. However, although Neanderthal was a few inches shorter, his bones were thicker and he was more robust generally. Since brain/body weight is usually the more important measure, the larger brain/greater body weight Neanderthals and the smaller brain/lesser body weight Homo Sapiens are probably close in the brain/body weight ratio. That's what Stringer means by nearly equal in brain size.
