Smithsonian Institution
In the history of humanity, there have been 9 human species. 7 lived at the same time
In the history of humanity, there were new human species, and seven of them lived at the same time. Currently, the remaining A wise man — and it is possible that our ancestors contributed to the disappearance of all other species.
Currently there is only one species of humans: us. You A wise manto use our scientific term.
But it wasn’t always like this. Several species of humans have existed at the same time for most of the last few hundred thousand years, and throughout history there have been at least — or 10, if we consider the new species in China.
After, they all disappearedleaving us as the only member of the genre Homo existing non-planet.
Paleontologists have been trying to understand what exactly happened and if it’s our ancestors’ fault.
If we go back in time to the time when it is believed that A wise man evolved – about 300,000 years ago – we will discover that there were many other human species around.
The are probably the most famous, but more or less at the same time there were the , A man from Heidelberg, o e o as well as a tiny species of humans on the island of Flores, o usually designated by “Hobbits”.
There is some fossil evidence of more species, but the lack of DNA of many of these fragments does not allow complete confirmation of other species present at the time.
At least seven human species lived at the same timefor tens of thousands of years. Our ancestors began leaving Africa around 60,000 years ago and these migrations coincided with the disappearance of other species.
We were responsible for its extinction? Why were we the only ones to cheat oblivion?
“I wish I could give a straight answer. We don’t know, frankly.because we are the only ones left”, explains the professor Chris Stringerresponsible for research into human evolution at the Natural History Museum, at .
“Obviously, some of them may have disappeared before we spread across the world, but we know that, in the last 100,000 years, A wise manhaving evolved in Africa, started to leave Africa”, adds Stringer.
This migration out of Africa brought our ancestors into contact with other humans, finding Neanderthals in Europethe Denisovans in Asia and the other possible species spread around the world.
“All species that existed less than 100,000 years ago disappeared in some way during this period, so It’s easy to establish a connection between the spread of our species and the disappearance of other species”, notes Stringer.
“Some people make a direct connection and say ‘Ah, we killed them all, it’s easy. We were far superior them, they were surpassed and became extinct very quickly’. But in fact, the more we know about this period, more complicated it seems“, says Stringer.
Of the other species, the one we know best is that of the Neanderthals. Humans have shared territories and even for thousands of years.
Stringer points out that, currently, we know that A wise manin fact, to Neanderthals — who were a capable species. However, the A wise man competed with the Homo neanderthalensis for resources, which may have led to its disappearance.
There are, however, numerous theories that attempt to explain why Neanderthals disappeared — committed by sapiens, a decrease in women, and a decrease in women.
What about other human species?
“We don’t know why the Denisovans became extinctbut we know that a few thousand years after A wise man having arrived in this region of Siberia, they disappeared. Once again, we can make this potential connection,” says Stringer
“O H. FloresiensisWe don’t know what happened to himand the H. erectuswe also don’t know what happened to him. By extrapolation, maybe the same process happened to these too, but we have much less data“, admits the investigator.
In other words, if there is no shortage of theories to explain the disappearance of Neanderthals, there are few explanations for the disappearance of the remaining human species — or eight, if we consider that in China.
However, we are left with the consolation of knowing that at least Neanderthals may not have completely disappeared: what you think. “In a way, Neanderthals did not become extinct completely because,” notes Stringer
“Someone calculated that since we don’t all have the same pieces of Neanderthal DNA, if we put together all the Neanderthal DNA existing in the current world in all people, we could probably rebuild 40% of the Neanderthal genome without even having a Neanderthal, just from people currently alive”, concludes the researcher.
