Why The Paleo Diet Couldn't Save The Neanderthals 

I'm glad they measured in burgers. As an American it's the only measurement I understand.

I love that Neanderthals and Fantasy Dwarves have grown increasingly similar to each other over time. Even Gimli's throwaway line "We Dwarves are natural sprinters, very dangerous over short distances!" from _The Two Towers_ turns out to be perfectly true of Neanderthals.

I read the title as "why the paleo diet couldn't save the Netherlands" and as a Dutch man that confused me greatly hahaha.

"I'm wasted on cross-country! We Neanderthals are natural sprinters!"

Dammit, why don't I have the genes that let me eat an extra burger a day without regrets?

The idea that Neanderthals starved themselves into extinction fills me with both sadness and empathy.

If I recall correctly some of the ancient megafauna goes extinct around the time neanderthals do too? If that is so then that would certainly have contributed to the lack of food. Especially since neanderthals might have preferred larger prey. I mean being built stockier would be beneficial in hunting larger animals and being a short distance sprinter rather than a long distance runner is likely to lead to ambush tactics in hunting. So neanderthals might have ambushed large prey animals and had a tougher time catching smaller animals since they are harder to ambush. I'm speculating so I don't know for sure.

She is such a great narrator and host for this series! Love Eons and Space-Time. 😊

Another factor in the extinction of the Neanderthal species was tribal groups. Neanderthals almost exclusively lived in small familial groups of perhaps a dozen individuals: parents, children, uncles/aunts & perhaps even grandparents (they took care of their elderly & disabled). Homo Sapiens, on the other hand, lived in large tribal groups of perhaps several hundred individuals. The advantages of tribal groups were myriad. While their food requirements would have been pretty significant when compared to a Neanderthal family, they had the tremendous advantage of diversification of labor. No matter how skilled, two hunters can only catch so much food & they often would have had to leave parts of the carcase behind, simply because they couldn't carry it all. On the other hand, a tribal hunting party could separate into groups, each doing their own thing: • Teens going after small rodents & lagomorphs with a sling, • Younger children hunting birds & raiding eggs from nests. • Multi-team hunters with massive pit traps could be used to catch massive deer, aurochs & even mammoths. Some digging the trap, others driving the herds & even more laying in wait with heavy rocks, spears & axes. Once they had killed enough prey, they could cut up the skin, meat & organs to carry back home, or cooked on the spot. 40-60 hunters working together could provide a lot of food, indeed. This would be great for the families in the tribe (& perhaps neighbouring tribes, coming to work together during prey migrations), but these tribal groups had a truly revolutionary advantage over the smaller Neanderthal groups. Astonishingly, this was something we still value today: *Information Transmittion & Storage..!* The Hard-Won Wisdom of the Neanderthals would have been built up with incredibly tiny increments, every new invention/technique would being passed down generationally & spread to other groups very, very slowly - with a single premature death taking millennia of accumulated knowledge to the grave. In sharp contrast, the human tribal groups would have knowledge spread across multiple individuals within each tribe (redundancy of storage), while co-operation, competition & trade between tribes, would have led to remarkable innovations not only being developed, but retained in the minds of many people, spreading across all the Human tribes in Europe within perhaps only a few generations.

One other indirect cause of Neanderthal decline was probably the eruption of the Campi Flegrei volcano, which would have reduced hunting ranges and crop plants in certain areas of Europe for a decade or more. This would have increased the population pressures, and lead to some more violent interactions between the two groups.

Meat is meat if you're hungry enough. Also can you guys do an episode about when our ancestors started covering themselves in animal hides?

These stories are always so sad, but it’s nice to know these ancestors and sibling human beings live on in a way in us.

So if neanderthals burned more calories, could that explain their ability to stay warmer in colder climates? And their improved healing abilities?

Imagine if Neanderthals jad survived to modern times. With the general abundance of food they would be world leading power lifters or something.

Exciting to hear of newer information to add to the discussion. I had never heard of that family group or the signs of cannibalization. Fascinating.

this makes me unbelievably sad in depths I've never felt before. what a tragic circumstance to go thru being two of the most intelligent and empathetic species to exist on this earth- the species who nature did not favor and the species who witnessed that extinction

I was reminded of sad story "The Inheritors" written by William Golding in the 1950s. He writes about a last group of Neanderthals who are slowly being decimated by modern humans

Shoutout to the amazing artists for all these pictures. Really is the icing on the cake of an amazing informational video!!

As recently as a few thousand years ago, evidence from the Baltic shore shows humans-- at least occasionally-- were cannibals. This is not to say they made it a way of life, but that times were very, very grim for isolated humanoid groups. In fact, our genetic patterns reveal we passed through a population "bottleneck" in which relatively few mating pairs survived.

Would the ancient homo sapiens even recognize the neanderthals as a separate species? They looked similar enough that it would have taken some scrutiny to find the differences

There is a similarity in how modern wolves are a little bit smaller & better runners compared to the dire "wolves."

3:30 Gimli was right all along! They really were natural sprinters, very dangerous over short distances.

I love this channel. It brings me back to being 6 years old and wanting to be a paleontologist. Absolutely fascinating and great information 👍🏼

This is both incredibly enlightening, and incredibly sad.

Considering that we theorize Neanderthals evolved a confrontational hunting style while humans evolved a persistence hunting style the amount of calories Neanderthals would have needed compared to us makes a lot of sense

This makes total sense, as a hunter, I could see where winter stressed animals for example a harsh winter can stress pheasants meaning they need more calories but due to snow or ice they can’t get at food sources. All that makes it hard to make it through winter. I always said it all comes down to calories used vs calories consumed and in winter as a animal you better have it figured out or you will not survive

I just *LOVE* Eons’ videos about the history of early humans! Thank you!

Another issue is that Sapiens had atlatls and other technological advantages that would probably reduce the number of prey. This could be a simple matter of predator competition. Right, if there were 4000 kcals a day, Sapiens overhunting might drop that to 2500 and reduce the meat fraction so that the Neanderthals can only realistically get 1500.

Great episode as always! Everyone here knows that Homo sapiens engaged in cannibalism too,...right?

Correct if wrong but I do remember somewhere that inter-species contact was one-sided most of times as Neanderthals babies born bigger than human, thus making it very *deadly* for human women to carry/born it while other way it was much much easier.

I have always found it interesting that we've only discovered Neanderthal bones with signs on cannibalism, and not Homo sapiens bones. If Neanderthals were cannibals by necessity, I'd expect to find at least some Homo sapiens bones they'd processed. The only reasons I can think of why we don't is that Neanderthals never killed Homo sapiens, or that they only ate other Neanderthals. That later reason, if true, makes me wonder if the cannibalism might have been ritual in nature and they were selective in that way. Fascinating stuff!

Something I always found interesting: (1) Assuming accurate population estimates of the Neanderthal & Cro-Magnon populations over time. (2) Accounting for genetic drift over time. (3) Accounting for up to 4-5% Neanderthal DNA found in some modern humans:. This suggests "Neanderthal extinction" was not real extinction per say but actually a nearly 100% genetic absorption of Neanderthal population via interbreeding.

Maybe it was a case of desperation on the part of the cannibals, like those plane crash survivors in the Andes in 1972.

Great episode! Always look forward to these!

Love your hosting and the videos! Please keep them coming :)))

Also probably Neanderthals were more adapted at eating large quantities of meat and their body was demanding it. Humans may have been more adapted to an omnivorous diet, which would have opened more survival avenues.

The first encounter between humans and neanderthals must have been amazing. Anyone know of any really good movies/documentaries that detail the encounter?

I really enjoy these videos, I really enjoy watching and listening to all the lecturers, I especially enjoyed this video, the laughter was so authentic. Lovely.

This is so sad. Thanks for such a great video.

It's such a great shame we had no written records back then. Would be so interesting to really for sure understand what happened.

Could the cannibalism be a type of ritual? Like consuming the dead to take on the dead person's virtues/characteristics or to have the dead "live on" inside them? Or could it have been something conquering groups did to their enemies? Or a punishment for a crime?

"These Neanderthals were probably cannibalized!" *smiles politely then shudders in shock* Kallie does such a great job presenting this show

You talk so pleasant and respectable it is a pleasure to hear you speak keep up the good work

Power wins in the short term, efficiency wins in the long run.

I’d love a video about how we developed thumbs

Neat video! Thanks for uploading!

This is easily one of my favorite episodes

The environment of the neanderthal was rough even with all their physical adaptations to cold and dry weather living and survival they found it hard living doesn't seem that they were particularly numerous either, they could not move beyond a certain point in the environment it is very hard to imagine the environment of the neanderthal when nothing really similarly exists. they were adapted to burn through and absorb more calories from the food they ate within a harsh environment.

Another factor that may have tipped the quest for food in favor of homo sapien may have been hunting strategy. Homo sapien evolved as a basically hairless persistence predator, able to travel vast distances and simply wearing out their prey. Neanderthal being more built for bursts of speed but not endurance may have been at a disadvantage.

Loved the art in this episode. Also, that necklace is so cool!

I love this channel so much!

The slight adaptations between the species would make a difference in competitive sports had they survived to the present day. Weight lifting, wrestling, sprinting, hammer throws all dominated by Neanderthals, while high jump, pentathlon, marathons etc belonged to us.

The grimace at :32 tho 😂 made my day

Loving the new animations!

Love learning about our cousins!

Should we really be referring to Sapiens as "humans" vis-a-vis Neanderthals? Neanderthals were humans too - indeed, this very channel did a great video about the humanity of Neanderthals.

Cannibalism always makes for an interesting story. I wonder if it is possible to find ancient prions?

Good video PBS! Great narrator

Yay Callie! Every time I see you it brings a smile to my face (o:

Fascinating. As someone who burns through food like crazy I feel the Neanderthal's pain. Cannot get over the absolute horror of that poor starving family being eaten though. I'd like to think this was part of a burial rite by their own community rather than horrible murder-cannibalism but ... times were tough I guess.

im an anthropology student that has just finished doing some extensive research for a paper on neanderthal cannibalism, specifically for the moula-guercy site in france so if anyone would like to ask questions feel free to ask!

Great Video!!!

Aw yess. A new Eons video!

Please do a video on dinocrocuta!

Could you do an episode about the history of Hyenas? With the cave hyena that's pictured in the video, the running hyenas if north america, dinocrocuta, and the humble aardwolf of today, and them being my favourite animal, I think that would be very interesting

Congrats on the 2 million subs!

What an excellent video. I’ve always struggled to conceptualize us outcompeting the Neanderthals. They were pretty much just like us. But physiology contributing to being outcompetes makes total sense. I had no problem making the connection for large animals that went extinct, like Megladon. But for some reason I had never considered it with Neanderthals. Fantastic video 👏

Thank for breaking that down in burger units 😆

I remember watching a documentary about this, from bone samples taken Neanderthal had a diet with more red meat which was more taxing on local resources when compared to homosapien more varied diet which consisted of fish, plants and what ever they could hunt.

5:10 "And there's no grocery store in town." I don't even think there's a town!

God these videos are so amazing, great work from all the team at EONS

Fuel efficiency won out over horsepower: draw your own conclusions.

Your my favorite RU-vid channel!! Bitter sweet. Like having a favorite TV show and having to wait a week ( or three 😭) until the next episode. Love you guys. Wish you guys could make videos more often.

Great stuff!

Kallie, you are the best! 😍

I wonder if they started agriculture, if they might have survived.

It's always interesting to see what type of weather human beings once existed

I love her voice so smooth and relaxing

The picture of the neanderthal with the spear (1.49) Was taken from. The Viennese Natural History Museum.

Malnutrition, cannibalism, species competition, challenging climates, and still all the El Sidrón family could get nice haircuts. Maybe they visited the 'B' Ark hairdressers. (Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

I love these EON presentations. I've watched so many of them that I have noticed changes in aging. But what doesn't seem to age are their graphics. I don't know in how many different presentations I've seen one group standing next to the body of a rhinoceros while seeming to wave to another group, etc. I don't how difficult it would be to upgrade these graphics, but there are a lot of designers out there and they should be able to up with some.

Thanks!

Cool video hope everything is good 👍

imagine if neanderthals still exist, maybe our course of religion, culture and racial problem would be even bigger

CAN you do a megelania vidoe its a anceint komodo dragon

This was amazing Ebons video

hands down one of the best episodes on this channel. Thanks guys:)

It's likely that western europe saw several localized extinctions of groups, due to climate alone, with modern human population reservoirs situated in the levant and eastern mediterannean coast, allowing this pop to come back a little bit better than neanderthals during interstadial conditons. The consumption of other humans is in no way limited to the late middle paleolithic, it's been happening for hundreds of ka in western europe (see Arago and Atapuerca). It is hard to consider that alone as definite proof of food scarcity to the level of species extinction. And that's not even including the many potential contacts that resulted in interbreeding between the different homo species which point to higher rate of neanderthal genes in early modern humans in europe (see Oase cave), some of that didn't get to modern humans pointing to, again, extinction of the first modern human lineages to set foot in europe. TL DR : not so clear who pushed who to starvation :)

assuming everyone participating were onboard to interbreed, that suggests they're similar enough to also communicate in a meaningful way, begs the question how different were they really

I watched my 1st video from this channel a couple weeks ago and somehow they've found a way to make learning more interesting! Thank you

Great thanks

Neanderthal, as well as Sapiens, are human. We are not the exclusive "Human" in this telling.

Lack of cheeseburgers led to Neanderthal's extinction 😢🍔

Love these paleo videos! Keep them coming!

f. best audio background. besides everything else ) thanks!!

In other words, we survived in part because we were more environmentally sustainable?

I personally believe that the memory of having lived with or around these amazing people the Neandertals, and they were people, complete people, is embedded in our cultural ideas of fantasy humans, dwarves, elves, friendly creatures that change into ever more fantastical, and less human, forms as the centuries become millennia. Something to think about I guess.

If homo sapiens and neanderthals lived together and shared food equally, this could have been fatal to neanderthals and beneficial to homo sapiens due to their different basal metabolisms.

Interesting, like always...

Another very interesting presentation - but please drop the music whilst the Presenter is speaking.