Modern Man matures more slowly vs Neanderthals

[Ouabache]

Neanderthals mature more rapidly than Modern Man

A recent study by Tanya Smith (Harvard U) (along with 13 secondary authors), indicate Neanderthals mature more rapidly than modern man. Here is a recent http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101115161143.htm" on this study.

 

[Evo]

A recent study by Tanya Smith (Harvard U) (along with 13 secondary authors), indicate Neanderthals mature more rapidly than modern man. Here is a recent http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101115161143.htm" on this study.

I saw a docuemntary on that, they had to mature more quickly due to harsher conditions. I look forward to reading your links as the documentary was quite interesting. Thanks!

 

[ViewsofMars]

Hey, can I protest the fact that the article presented by the OP does state, "Dental evidence for ontogenetic differences between modern humans and Neanderthals" not modern man that is within the title (header of the thread) and the OP did state "modern man" too? Guess I'm being picky or a tad fussy because I'm a woman. lol! Also, we are modern humans.

This might pretty much gives me the jest of what to me is important about the article:
"These new methods present a unique opportunity to assess the origins of a fundamentally human condition: the costly yet advantageous shift from a primitive 'live fast and die young' strategy to the 'live slow and grow old' strategy that has helped to make humans one of the most successful organisms on the planet," Smith says. Humans' extended maturation may have facilitated additional learning and complex cognition, possibly giving early Homo sapiens an advantage over their Neanderthal cousins."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/hu-aot111010.php

I've been very busy lately. Hope all is going well for you, Evo and every other human being tuning in.

 

[Ouabache]

I saw a documentary on that, they had to mature more quickly due to harsher conditions. I look forward to reading your links as the documentary was quite interesting. Thanks!

I first heard of this on an NPR radio program and wanted to learn more about it.
ViewsofMars did extract a compelling hypothesis of Tanya's, that there could very well be an evolutionary advantage to our slower maturation.

 

[schizoid]

A recent study by Tanya Smith (Harvard U) (along with 13 secondary authors), indicate Neanderthals mature more rapidly than modern man. Here is a recent http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101115161143.htm" on this study.

I always thought this was true, considering besides basic motor skills we have to learn a language which is quite complex. It not only involves language but facial expression, eye contact and emotions which requires a lot of conditioning . Delayed maturation has more to do with neural connection being formed from a very young age brought about by our environment and our interaction with it.

 

[ViewsofMars]

MAX PLANK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY has a recent press release "Synchrotron Reveals Human Children Outpaced Neanderthals by Slowing Down" that gives further details about this topic:

While it may seem like kids grow up too fast, evolutionary anthropologists see things differently. Human childhood is considerably longer than chimpanzees, our closest-living ape relatives. A study by Tanya Smith (Harvard University and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), Paul Tafforeau (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) and colleagues in the November issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found a similar pattern when human kids are compared to Neanderthals. A multinational team of specialists applied cutting-edge synchrotron X-ray imaging to resolve microscopic growth in 10 young Neanderthal and Homo sapiens fossils. They found that despite some overlap, which is common in closely-related species, significant developmental differences exist. Modern humans are the slowest to the finish line, stretching out their maturation, which may have given them a unique evolutionary advantage.

Scientists have been debating whether Neanderthals grew differently than modern humans for decades. An ambitious project on the development of these archaic humans was launched by Jean-Jacques Hublin and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA). A remarkable finding of this five-year study is that Neanderthals grow their teeth significantly faster than members of our own species, including some of the earliest groups of modern humans to leave Africa between 90-100,000 years ago. The Neanderthal pattern appears to be intermediate between early members of our genus (e.g., Homo erectus) and living people, suggesting that the characteristically slow development and long childhood is a recent condition unique to our own species. This extended period of maturation may facilitate additional learning and complex cognition, possibly giving early Homo sapiens a competitive advantage over their contemporaneous Neanderthal cousins.
Please read on...
http://www.heb.fas.harvard.edu/Press/

I do protest the usage of the OP using "Modern Man" in the header of this topic since scientists today use the term "Modern Humans". Also, what I have provided to this topic is the latest information. (tee hee) At this point we can move over to the Biology section and incorporate more information pertaining to this. I hope to do that over the weekend or early next week unless some higher authority than me would perfer to have it placed here. If so, let me know.

Ouabache, thank you for bringing this subject up. It's extremely important. I for one do appreciate it. Thank you.