The de-extinction dilemma: Have we revived the Neanderthal? | the television

The discoveries about Neanderthals do not cease to refute the myths about this human species, which are much more complex than previously thought. They tended to their patients, created abstract art, performed rituals, and ate seafood. They teamed up in large groups, strategically. He is …

The discoveries about Neanderthals do not cease to refute the myths about this human species, which are much more complex than previously thought. They tended to their patients, created abstract art, performed rituals, and ate seafood. They teamed up in large groups, strategically. It is almost certain that they were talking. And some of it remains in our genes, about 2%, because on more than one occasion the two species interbred. Two documentaries prove this society, which mysteriously became extinct 40,000 years ago, the day before yesterday, as it is said, and its last copies were found in Gibraltar.

in What were Neanderthals like? 2020 American and Canadian production (on Movistar +), We accompany paleontologists and other experts who follow their trails and try to discover their skills through them. For a long time his paintings were attributed to sapiens, but today we know that they were his work; Some of these creations clearly refer to a symbolic motif. We visited first known human construct, that it was built with stalagmites in the Bruniquel Cave (France); It didn’t seem like an easy task. Javelin champion checks the quality of his spear. And most strikingly, we know scientists from the Max Planck Institute, who They try something like little brains, Created from stem cells into which certain Neanderthal genes were inserted: called organelles, the size of a pea. These experts point to certain links, not yet proven, between some of our characteristics (from addiction to autism syndrome through certain immunity or type 2 diabetes) with the inheritance of our sister species. We’re left without knowing the end of the daring experiment because it’s going to be a long one: They plan to implant these brains into tiny robots to monitor their behaviour.

Serial Neanderthals (in English Neanderthals: meet your ancestors), is a 2018 British production, presented by human and paleontologist Ella El Shamahi, which aired on La Otra de Telemadrid. Its first chapter is devoted to painstakingly reshaping the appearance of these men, women and children From the remains, 3D images and simulations interpreted by entrepreneur and actor: Andy Serkis (Gollum in lord of the rings). We end up seeing Neanderthals among us on the subway: it’s not out of place either. The way to get to that image is a bit long.

The second and final episode is more compelling, as it focuses on the mysteries surrounding these other humans. He is looking for traces of conflict with sapiens that would explain their disappearance, without coming to very firm conclusions about whether our ancestors slaughtered them, although he suggests this as probable. Its small and widely dispersed population could not resist an attack by larger groups. The end in Gibraltar points to another reason for the extinction: the climate crisis, in this case due to cooling. They were trying to migrate south. The North African coast was on the horizon. But they did not master navigation, which would serve the sapiens to expand all over the planet; At this time they were arriving in Australia.

In the final part of the documentary, very good questions are raised. With advances in DNA editing reviewed, could we one day bring these species back to life? There are already projects to do this with mammoths (of which there are much better preserved specimens): that’s the so-called eliminate extinction. But the revived Neanderthals, no matter how mixed races they are, will cross an unprecedented barrier. They will be people, though not like us; people anyway, right? We will not lock them in a zoo for the rich like Jurassic Park. Given the history of cruelty and racism that modern humans carry with us, there is no guarantee that a trial will go well, that they will be well accepted or that their integration will be easy. The big question then is not whether we can, and it will only be answered with time. That is if we must.

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