Article Summary 2 Outline

Name: Michael Milner Presentation Date: May 1, 2014

Find an article relating to biological anthropology from a scientific peer-reviewed journal and complete the first (Original source) and second (Reflection) parts of the outline. Find a second source related to your first and complete the third part of the outline (Related source). This may be a popular review of the original source. Limited responses will not receive full credit. More detailed instructions and links to resources are posted in Canvas. This outline should be completed and turned in on the day you present to the class and it will be used for grading the assignment. Additionally, submit the summary portions only in Canvas. No late work will be accepted.

Pts. 1. Original source: .5 ____ a. Title: Neanderthals were not inferior to modern humans, study finds .5 ____ b. Author(s): University of Colorado at Boulder .5 ____ c. Authors credentials: CU Boulder is an accredited university. .5 ____ d. Source (complete reference): University of Colorado at Boulder. "Neanderthals were not inferior to modern humans, study finds." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 April 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140430133054.htm>. e. Summary (note that the summary length should be commensurate with the article length and should be in narrative (paragraph) format and that an in-text citation is required). This summary should identify the research topic, hypothesis, methods, results, and conclusion: Neanderthals are viewed as dimwitted and thought of having inferior intelligence compared to humans today. These statements, according to one researcher at University of Colorado Boulder, are not supported by scientific evidence. Neanderthals lived in a large area in Europe and Asia some 40,000 to 350,000 years ago. These people were said to have disappeared after our ancestors crossed into Europe from Africa. A lot of researchers thought that the reason for the Neanderthals disappearance was because they were inferior to our ancestors. CU Boulder researcher Paola Villa and Leiden University archaeologist Wil Roebroekes state otherwise. They believe that, supported by their research, that there is not enough evidence to support the fact that Neanderthals were inferior to our ancestors. Villa and Roebroeks also published an article about this information in the journal PLOS ONE. Many believe that Neanderthals did not have complex communication, were less sufficient hunters, had inferior weapons, and had a weak diet. Villa and Roebroeks found that none of these assumptions and hypothesis is supported by research and evidence. Some archaeological sites suggest, for example, that Neanderthals hunted as a group and used the landscape to help them. Research also shows that Neanderthals likely drove bison to their death by guiding them into a sinkhole in France. These pieces of evidence clearly show that the Neanderthals were intelligent and could communicate as a group and hunt that way. Other archaeological sites provide evidence that Neanderthals did in fact have a very diverse diet. Fossils found in food remains and Neanderthal teeth show that they may have eaten peas, acorns, pistachios, seeds, olives, nuts, and date palms. Researchers have also found ochre at some of these sites, a natural

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pigment that could have been used for body painting for cultural and religious rituals. The article states, the past misrepresentation of Neanderthals cognitive ability may have been linked to the tendency of researchers to compare Neanderthals, who lived in the Middle Paleolithic, to modern humans living during the more recent Upper Paleolithic period, when leaps in technology were being made. Instead of comparing Neanderthals to people on other continents, researchers have been comparing them to their successors. The fact that they are comparing these two generations of people does not support interpretations that Neanderthals are actually inferior to other peoples of their time. Villa and Roebroeks then have to ask themselves why Neanderthals didnt survive if they were as intelligent as the people living at the same time. One idea comes from analyses of the Neanderthal genome over the last few years. Genomic studies have shown that our ancestors and Neanderthals likely interbred and the male children may have reduced fertility. These studies also show that Neanderthals lived in small groups, which could have also contributed to their decline. f. Critical evaluation (what makes this source credible? Why should this information be believed?): This source is credible because it was written at a university and based off the findings and research of two accredited researchers that are both employed by universities, on in Colorado and one in the Netherlands. This information should be believed because it is based off real studies and scientific research. g. Relevance to biological anthropology: Biological anthropology is an area of science where research is concerned with the behavioral and biological variation of human beings, non-human primates, and extinct hominin ancestors of humans. This article is relevant to biological anthropology because it is about hominin ancestors of humans and how they lived during their time. h. Other disciplines touched upon: This article also touched upon archaeology and how it is used to find fossils in order to study Neanderthals and their way of life. Without archaeology, we would have no way of getting the evidence we need to prove that Neanderthals were, in fact, not inferior to other peoples that lived at the same time as they did. i. Synthesis i. In one sentence, summarize the main point of the article: the take-away message: Despite the research of previous scientists that stated that Neanderthals were inferior to other people of their time, further research suggests that they were not inferior, but had complex systems of communication, hunting, and living. 2. Reflection a. Which part of this assignment was most difficult and why? The most difficult part of this assignment was figuring out what other disciplines this article touched upon because it did not touch upon many. This article was centered on the history and research of Neanderthals, but it did also discuss the role of archaeology in this research. That was the only other discipline that this article referenced. b. Identify at least one question you have after reading the original article and explain how you could go about finding an answer. My one question about his article is: Was the reason Neanderthals really went extinct because of inbreeding with our ancestors and then the male children being unable to produce children?

I thought this was very interesting because I had never heard this approach and idea before on how Neanderthals may have went extinct. To go about finding this answer, I would research this topic further and see what other information I can find that supports this suggestion. No one knows for sure if this idea is one hundred percent true, but the more research done on it, the more it becomes credible. c. Reflect on how the critical evaluation process impacted your opinion on the article: The critical evaluation process helped me see both sides of this issue. One side was saying that research proves that Neanderthals were intelligent and had complex communication, hunting, and living systems. Other researchers say that Neanderthals were unintelligent and inferior to other groups of people. After reading through and critically evaluating this article, I believe that Neanderthals were intelligent and not inferior to other groups of people. d. How might the information in the article be useful in the future? This might be answered very broadly such as how an understanding of larger biological principles might be useful: The information in this article may be useful in the future if I choose to take more anthropology and biology classes. I will now have some sort of idea of what researchers believe Neanderthals lived like. Understanding how Neanderthals lived, such as hunting and traveling, can help me further with how they became extinct. 3. Related source .5 ____ a. Title: What does it mean to be human? Ancient DNA and Neanderthals .5 ____ b. Author(s): Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History .5 ____ c. Authors credentials: This is an accredited museum. d. Complete reference: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-and-neanderthals 3 ____ e. Summary (note that the summary length should be commensurate with the article length and should be in narrative (paragraph) format and that an in-text citation is required): The main idea of this article is how ancient DNA has been used to understand Neanderthal biology, how they communicated with one another, and how they interacted with anatomically modern humans. The first mitochondrial DNA from Neanderthals was published in 1997. This sample was found in the first Neanderthal fossil found, from Feldhofer Cave in Neander Valley, Germany. The mtDNA sequences were very different from modern human mtDNA. Most human DNA sequences differ on average 8.0 substitutions. Neanderthal and human sequences differed by 27.2 substitutions. This information allows researchers to make the assumption that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans dates to around 550,000 to 690,000 years ago. This information suggests that Neanderthals did not contribute greatly to modern human genomes. More mtDNA sequences suggested many differences between Neanderthals and modern humans. If Neanderthals had interbred with modern humans in Europe, then researchers would have found more similarities between Neanderthals and Europeans than those between Neanderthals and modern humans. There are many different arguments whether or not Neanderthals and our ancestors interbred. Most believe that our ancestors originated in Africa and then spread to Europe and the Americas. Neanderthals are believed to have originated in Europe. Researchers believe that in some areas, our ancestors bred with Neanderthals, but not in large amounts. In some areas, there was no

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interbreeding between the two groups of people. One hypothesis shows that hominin populations in Eurasia and Africa were connected by gene flow. This further proves that some people of either group did interbreed. Although it is difficult to prove interbreeding between our ancestors and Neanderthals, small amounts of interbreeding were supported by various researches and analyses. Neanderthals were believed to have many distinct characteristics that were only among their people. The article states, The specific MCR1 mutation in Neanderthals has not found in modern humans. This indicates that the two mutations for red hair and pale skin occurred independently and does not support the idea of gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans. Researchers say that they had red hair, pale skin, ABO blood types, were able to taste bitter substances, and had certain sizes of brains. These characteristics were not seen in our ancient human ancestors. f. Critical evaluation (what makes this source credible? Why should this information be believed?): This source is credible because it is an article published by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. This is a well know, credible museum that performs research around the world for many different scientific areas. g. Relevance to chosen article: This article is relevant to my first article because both article are about Neanderthals and how they relate to modern humans and our ancient human ancestors. Both articles talk about the differences and similarities between these three groups of people. The second article goes deeper into research about Neanderthals and the DNA differences and similarities between them and ancient and modern humans. To understand intelligence and the way of life of Neanderthals, we need to study their fossils as well as their DNA. DNA studies are the perfect way to figure out exactly how these groups of people were related, and why the Neanderthals went extinct.