Video 10 Things You Should Know About Cavemen

These are 10 facts and discoveries you should know about our ancient ancestors from their paintings to what is in their DNA

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5. Neanderthal Characteristics
you could be much more related to them then you might want to believe. Studies have shown that about 20 percent of Neanderthal genomes survive in modern homo sapien DNA. So about 20 percent of yourself is a little primal. Humans who live in deserts generally don’t need the Neanderthal characteristics quite as much as the ones who do. Many characteristics of Neanderthals seemed to gradually disparate after thousands of years of natural selection. Others qualities of Neanderthals would work just fine in modern times. For example, the skin of this species seemed to have little to no evolutionary change for people who lived in colder regions of Asia and Europe. Ever wonder why you might get rosy cheeks? This an inherited gene from our distant cousins. Also, the straighter the hair you have, the more similar genetics you possess.

4. Neanderthal Intelligence
Maybe cavemen weren’t quite as stupid as they look. They are normally depicted in movies as thuggish, club swinging thugs with little to no culture. People are beginning to realize this isn’t by any means the case. Many researchers even claim there is little no cognitive superiority between humans and neanderthals. Yes we’ve made advancements throughout the ages but that doesn’t mean we are no biologically more intelligent. This would be like saying people in the 90’s were less intelligent than us now because they didn’t have iphones. Discoveries like the one in the Bruniquel, France caves near Toulouse prove that neanderthals were skilled toolmakers. Other studies show that the demise of this species, was not from being inferior to homo sapiens but from infertilities issues.

3. Cavemen Choirs
Evidence from cave paintings suggests that cavemen enjoyed the acoustic qualities of their caves, especially for singing. One like this here suggests that they had the ability to even play the flute. At this time, Neanderthals enjoyed singing with high pitched voices and mimicking noises they would hear from animals. Imagine an entire clan of hairy cavemen grunting and groaning their own musical works. Cavemen were trained to use their voice in order to navigate their way through cave with echolocation similar to a bat. Music’s been around since prehistoric times, ever since they realized they could create certain noises with bones, shells, stones and of course their voices. With all the echos from the cave, it must have been interesting to hear their style of music.

2. Hunting
Being a hunter gather back in the stone age certainly was no easy task. Luckily with the discovery of fire though, if cavemen were lucky enough to find food sources, they could have some quality barbeques. Imagine trying to take down a massive woolly mammoth with only sticks and stones. The early stone age people used sharpened sticks, and eventually used an arrow or spear with sharpened flint or bone. Each part of the animal that was hunted was used with some important purpose. With a lack of hunting technology, stalking prey would have been incredible exhausting and just to make a bow would have taken weeks of hard work. Even when it was finished, there was no guarantee how effective a stone tipped arrow would be against a raging animal. During the end of the paleolithic area a spear throwing invention called the atlatl developed by early homo sapiens would prove to be the most effective.

1.Amazing Painters
The cave paintings in Lascaux, France depict paleolithic paintings of some the of types of animals that were hunted. This included horses, birds, bulls and even rhinoceros. This complex of caves in southwestern France is estimated to date back 17,300 years ago and is a UNESCO world heritage site. The cave contains nearly 2000 images; mainly of humans, abstract figures and animals. Many of the colors of paints that they used were from mineral pigments, mostly containing iron oxide. This explains the orange rusty, color you see here. Another interesting cave painting is found in Argentina, known as the Cueva de las Manos, which translates to the cave of the hands. You have to admit, this is much cooler than some examples of modern art we have today.