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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Becoming Human: The Last Human Standing

Why are we the ONLY humans left on earth? Where is everyone else? Where 
are the Homo Neanderthals? Why and how did they disappear? Well to answer 
this big question I watched a documentary, which surprisingly answered this 
question. One big interesting fact that in a way bonds us all together is the 
fact that we are 99.9% alike, which is shown is our DNA. I personally think 
so because in the documentary they mentioned that before the Homo Neanderthals 
were extinct they interbreed with the Homo Sapiens. That is one reason why we 
carry a very similar DNA. Although we carry the same DNA our brains and bodies 
ere very different. Homo Neanderthals had smaller brains then us which had a 
huge impact on their behavior. But even thought their brains were smaller they 
were very smart and scientists are wondering if they were smarter then us. Their brains were smaller
but it is possible that they used them more. Scientists say that we use only 
20% of our brain.Their body was also much smaller then ours which is why they 
had less energy in their bodies, so they couldn't do all the exercises that we 
can. Almost all early humans developed and grew in smaller populations. They 
were scattered all around the world which caused differences in their behavior 
but some similarities were so big that we started making connections and 
connecting them and that is how we found out that they started spreading. Some 
smaller populations of early humans lived close to the ocean which had a big 
affect on their behavior. In the documentary archeologists blogged about a huge 
cave which was discovered. It took almost 10 years for them to enter the cave 
and start digging. In those years they found many its and pieces of bones which 
when they put together completed about 30 different skeletons! Discovering that 
cave was a big step forward in our human evolution. 
 
 
 
"The Last Human Standing." Becoming Human. PBS NOVA. 31 Aug. 2011. Television. 

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