Neanderthals successfully roamed the forests and shores of Europe for more than 200,000 years. But then, modern humans came along. Archaeological evidence suggests that human migrants from Africa arrived on the European continent 40,000 years ago, right around when all the Neanderthals died off. Anthropologists have been wondering what factors contributed to this rapid and total replacement of Neanderthals by their modern human cousins, reports The Los Angeles Times. But now, a new team made up of mechanical engineers, neuroscientists and physical anthropologists have a new clue.
The team created the first digital reconstruction of four Neanderthal brains and compared them to an average human brain. In doing so, the authors think that different ways of processing information may be why humans survived and Neanderthals did not. In particular, the researchers discovered that even though the two types of brains were about the same size, there was a large difference in shape.
The authors found that the cerebellum, a region of the brain that’s in the back of our heads, was significantly larger in humans than Neanderthals. This part of the brain is associated with speech comprehension and production, as well as working memory and cognitive flexibility, said Naomichi Ogihara, a mechanical engineer at Keio University in Yokohama, Japan, who worked on the study, to the Times.
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