Every Homo naledi we know of is female, and the implications are fascinating (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Midnight@slrpnk.net to c/archaeology@mander.xyz

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[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

I mean...

They're more likely to be hybrids instead of a real species. They have dental traces of both near sapian cousins and only found in waaaaaay more ancestral cousins.

With hybrids it's actually kind of common for males to abort before birth. Something about the mothers immune reaction to the y chromosome or something, I'm going off memory.

But it could also explain why that group of hybrids lived alone.

A hypothetical reason for why human/neanderthal hybrids tended to be born to human mothers, was neanderthals developed faster. So to a neanderthal mother, a hybrid appeared to have developmental delays mentally while also being a weakling and never lived to reach its intellectual peak.

Meanwhile a hybrid raised among humans would develop physically faster and always be stronger, but also develop mentally faster, even if not peaking as high.

It's possible that Naledi may have only been capable of reproducing females from one or both origin species. Or even been a neutral (possibly sterile) group between the two origin species where hybrids (always female) were abandoned to be raised but what may have been outcasts.

Like, we honestly can't even say they're a unique species and we've been off by a lot more before.

Scientifically its important to analyse it, but I understand that at a certain point it becomes grave robbery.

I feel like 10,000 years is a pretty safe line...

[-] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Is there any evidence that Neanderthals were less intelligent than humans at their peak? I was under the impression that recent research has basically completely nullified the idea that Neanderthals were less intelligent, and the current belief is that they're just as intelligent as humans. Is there newer research that I'm not aware of that contrasts this line of thinking?

[-] Viceversa@lemmy.world -5 points 1 week ago

Why they extinct?

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 5 days ago

Are they extinct? Many people have a fairly significant amount of neanderthal DNA.

[-] Viceversa@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

If they wouldn't be extinct, we would have neanderthal DNA with a fairly significant amount of other DNA.

[-] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

My understanding was that they went extinct because they needed more calories to stay alive (due to their strength) and also they stayed together in smaller groups of ~10-20 people, compared to humans' ~100 people groups.

When Neanderthals came into contact with humans, they were either absorbed into or outcompeted by human groups

[-] P00ptart@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

It also seems they lacked the dexterity of humans. So they had to hunt with spears by stabbing at them instead of throwing them from a safer distance.

this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026

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Archaeology

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Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

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