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English 7:10 TED Talks

The biggest myths about Neanderthals - Bruce Hardy

TED-Ed · 352,329 views · Added 1 month ago

Subtitles (93 segments)

00:06

In 1856, quarriers working a cave in Germany’s Neander Valley

00:12

discovered several mysterious fossils.

00:15

The remains changed hands until being identified

00:19

as the skullcap and femur bones

00:22

of something ancient and human, but not quite us.

00:28

It soon became clear they belonged to an extinct human species—

00:33

the first ever known to science:

00:36

Homo neanderthalensis, or simply, Neanderthals.

00:41

Not long before the discovery,

00:43

many believed the world was only about 6,000 years old.

00:48

However, by the mid-1800s,

00:51

naturalists were more comfortable with geological timelines

00:55

and evolutionary theory.

00:57

The idea that ancient remains could belong to another human species

01:03

was finally becoming conceivable.

01:06

But misconceptions persisted, and much “Neander slander” ensued.

01:12

Early on, Neanderthals were depicted as dim-witted oafs

01:17

who died out because of their inferiority to modern humans,

01:22

aka Homo sapiens.

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