Neanderthals Doomed by Vision-Centered Brains

[Ichingcarpenter]

Neanderthals' keen vision may explain why they couldn't cope with environmental change and died out, despite having the same sized brains as modern humans, new research suggests.

The findings, published today (March 12) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that Neanderthals developed massive visual regions in their brains to compensate for Europe's low light levels. That, however, reduced the brain space available for social cognition.

"We have a social brain, whereas Neanderthals appear to have a visual brain," said Clive Gamble, an archaeologist at the University of Southampton, who was not involved in the study. As a result, the extinct hominids had smaller social and trading networks to rely on when conditions got tough. That may have caused Neanderthals to die off around 35,000 years ago.
snip

Neanderthals were has been a long-standing debate.
"Either they get regarded as lumbering brutes, or the other side says, 'No, they weren't that stupid. They had enormous brains, so they must have been as smart as we are,'" said study co-author Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Oxford.

snip

http://news.yahoo.com/neanderthals-doomed-vision-centered-brains-002516901.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Another LInk

Link:

http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/neanderthals-lacked-social-skills-130312.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1

[Xipe Totec]

2. Went extinct because they were less capable of forming larger social networks...

Another theory, supported by this new study, is that Neanderthals went extinct because they were less capable of forming larger social networks. Pearce theorized that "smaller social groups might have made Neanderthals less able to cope with the difficulties of their harsh Eurasian environments because they would have had fewer friends to help them out in times of need.

More individualistic, less socialistic, a kind of social Darwinist...

In other words, they were an early evolutionary experiment with teabaggery.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Their social system worked well enough

for tens of thousands of years, however there was a climatic ice change at the time of their demise which accelerated their demise.

I think the political undertones of this finding is interesting in our day and age of climate change and political inaction while ignoring scientific observations of facts.

The Ayn Rand social structure doesn't work in times of need for group survival since it is individually based.


I had the same thought you did looking at the bigger picture.

[bananas]

4. In other words, they didn't grok twitter, facepalm, and borg-brain.

Fraking Luddites!

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. They did know how to use

Conservapedia but only after consulting their 6,000 year old history.

[progree]

5. No, they didn't go extinct. They evolved into the Bush crime family n/t

[deutsey]

7. Ironically, modern humans may be doomed by our lack-of-vision-minds n/t

[libodem]

8. You know

Monkey see. Monkey do. Seems like the most short sighted individuals are all about looks. Beauty is more than skin deep.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Seems like an awful lot of conjecture to hang on a large set of eye sockets.

[formercia]

10. Funny they didn't see it coming.......

Sometimes, situations tend to sneak up on you, and even when it's in plain sight, the ramifications are ignored or rationalized away,

We are not that smart either. Take 'Global Warming' as an example.........

[Warpy]

11. Rubbish. They cared for their weak and honored their dead

and had just as much "social cognition" as we do. Or more.

Personally, I think they were ill adapted to a warming planet and got bred out of existence. We carry bits and pieces of their DNA. They were as human as we are.

This guy is an idiot. Compensation for low light would have given them eyes like cats, not large visual cortexes.