From The BBC: 'What if other human species hadn't died out (...)

[abqtommy]

Would we still see our humanity in the same way if other hominin species – from Australopithecus to Neanderthals – hadn't gone extinct?'

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211008-what-if-other-human-species-hadnt-died-out

"In our mythologies, there's often a singular moment when we became "human". Eve plucked the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and gained awareness of good and evil. Prometheus created men from clay and gave them fire. But in the modern origin story, evolution, there's no defining moment of creation. Instead, humans emerged gradually, generation by generation, from earlier species.

Just like any other complex adaptation – a bird's wing, a whale's fluke, our own fingers – our humanity evolved step by step, over millions of years. Mutations appeared in our DNA, spread through the population, and our ancestors slowly became something more like us and, finally, we appeared.

People are animals, but we're unlike other animals. We have complex languages that let us articulate and communicate ideas. We're creative: we make art, music, tools. Our imaginations let us think up worlds that once existed, dream up worlds that might yet exist, and reorder the external world according to those thoughts. Our social lives are complex networks of families, friends and tribes, linked by a sense of responsibility towards each other. We also have an awareness of ourselves, and our universe: sentience, sapience, consciousness, whatever you call it.

And yet the distinction between ourselves and other animals is, arguably, artificial. Animals are more like humans than we might like to think."

I found this to be a long and thought-provoking read. I especially liked the
information about animals that have much larger brains then humans. Since they
have never mastered the controlled use of fire and the technology that produces
Weapons Of Mass Destruction I have to give them credit for being smarter than us
humans. But then you're free to decide that.

There's much more text and photos at the link above.

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick and recommend. Thanks for posting!

[Act_of_Reparation]

2. Kind of a moot question, honestly.

Homo sapiens did coexist with other hominids. The prevailing theory regarding their "extinction" is that they were absorbed into homo sapiens through interbreeding. One might therefore deduce humans didn't see these other hominids as being dramatically different from themselves.

[LeftInTX]

7. I think Neanderthal traits went away in human gene pools with the advent of agriculture

Mutations for agriculture based diet became dominant.

[lagomorph777]

3. "finally, we appeared" - nothing final about us. If we don't wipe ourselves out, we are mere

stewards of an ever-evolving gene pool. We will continue to evolve for as long as our species survives. Which, at this point, doesn't look like it will be very much longer.

[StarryNite]

4. Fascinating

Thank you for sharing.

[canetoad]

5. Looks interesting

I'll read it after I've taken the animals for their morning walk! Thanks for posting.

[hunter]

6. We're probably not any brighter than the Neanderthals, we just had more children.

It was the difference between having a child every year or two, and having a child every two or three years.

That fecundity will probably be the end of our civilization if we don't quit fossil fuels and continue allowing useless anti-intellectual religions to reject realistic sex education and birth control.