Final assignment of the course ‘Human Evolution, Past and Future’ (University of Wisconsin–Madison, instructor John Hawks). The objective was to describe a plausible scenario for human evolution into the future, with the form of an essay. This work was rated with the maximum grade by four peer assessors.

One of the fields in paleoanthropology I especially like is the cognitive and behavioral evolution. In particular, a challenging matter is the space that neandertals occupy in such field. There are many questions regarding their cognitive abilities and symbolic behavior. The big size of their brains suggests that neandertals would have had a genetic ability for complex cognition. But traditionally it was considered that they did not reach ‘the level’ of modern humans.

Neandertal view by paleoartist Fabio Fogliazza. Photo: Roberto Sáez

We believe that neandertals had a form of language, otherwise they would never have been able to organise themselves to the extent that they did. Assuming that neandertals were capable of some symbolic thought, can we imagine their behavior when they confronted the encroaching Homo sapiens species with different capabilities? Half a century ago it was clearly believed that symbolic thought was a key distinction between modern humans and neandertals. Our knowledge has increased a lot since then, and now we have some evidence suggesting that neandertals did have symbolic thought. Here I collect some of the key findings:  Sigue leyendo →