Analysis of Neanderthal DNA

Neanderthals
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The Neanderthals and the human, according to research and archeological data are related on a much dipper level. The Neanderthals and the humans, as such share some intricate elements that are embedded in the evolutionary development (Shreeve, 1998). There are quite a number of hypothesis that have been attributed to the demise of the Neanderthals. Among the hypothesis floated include the idea that they were outcompeted by the humans. Ideally, the humans may not have had the brute strength of the Neanderthals, but they had higher brain capability. This helped them to survive the environmental changes and outlive their cousins. The Neanderthals are also thought to have been wiped by the climatic changes as they were less adapted. The element of the humans coming into Europe is also thought to have led to their demise, relative to encroachment on their land and resources.
Although the Neanderthals have since become extinct, there are some very interesting developments that scientists have been able to unearth in the last several decades. With the help of better technology, more data continually emerges about the various connections that may have existed between the humans and their close cousins, the Neanderthals. Like the humans, they were quite intelligent and could master some of the basic elements of social organizations such as family units, caring and even pacing meaning in different objects and events (Shreeve, 1998). Research indicates that, they may have buried their dead, recognized and made art. However they were much stronger than the humans, with less cranial capacity than the latter.
The face of the Neanderthals is one that is riddled with quite a number of theories trying to explain how the species became extinct. Having lived together for roughly 50,000, the Neanderthals finally lost the fight and became extinct. One of the main theories that is used to explain the extinction of the Neanderthals is the fact that, modern human coming into Europe from Africa had better equipped mechanisms of surviving their cousins (Shreeve, 1998). The modern humans may not have had big muscles such as the ones that were exhibited by the Neanderthals, but they had bigger cranial capacities (Shreeve, 1998). The modern man simply outwitted the Neanderthals who relied heavily on their might other than creativity to survive. As such, the modern humans relative to their better brain power and ability to think through complex challenges in their environment, gained an edge over their cousins, leading to a stiff competition, which wiped out the Neanderthals. This thus could indicate that natural selection theory may have been at work, where the stronger better adapted species out lived the less adapted species (Shreeve, 1998).
By extension of the fact that researchers have found significant differences in the cranial features between the humans and the Neanderthals, speaks to another theory on why the Neanderthals separated and became extinct while the modern man survived (Weaver, Roseman & Stringer, ...