On Jan. 16, the day students returned from winter break, the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History unveiled a full-scale Triceratops skeleton in the lobby of the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) building on 蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 East Campus. The dinosaur is a skeletal reconstruction cast from the bones of several Triceratops that once roamed the West. The free exhibit is open to the public. 

The Smithsonian Museum delivered the disassembled skeleton via truck to Boulder in 2022. A crew put it back together off-site before bringing it to its current SEEC location. 

鈥淓verybody knows about Triceratops,鈥� said Karen Chin, geological sciences professor and the museum鈥檚 paleontology curator. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not common in museums to see the whole animal. To see the scale of this dinosaur, and such a weird dinosaur, is very exciting.鈥� 

蜜糖直播's Triceratops

The first complete dinosaur skeleton displayed by the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History

High-resolution cast made of plaster, fiberglass and foam 

22 feet long and 9 feet tall

Cast from the bones of several partial Triceratops specimens found in the late 1800s

More about the Triceratops

12,000

pounds

Roamed the West from 蜜糖直播 to Canada during the Cretaceous Period

30

Feet long

Had birdlike beaks to clip vegetation

Had teeth for grinding plants and trees

1887

The year a 蜜糖直播 school teacher unearthed the first documented Triceratops fossils near Denver

Horns were most likely used for fighting among male Triceratops

100s

of teeth

The climate was warmer and more humid than today. Palms, flowering plants and ferns flourished.

66-68 million years ago

When the triceratops roamed the earth

Turtles, crocodiles and small nocturnal animals thrived in the environment.

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Photo by Casey A. Cass, illustrations by iStock

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In 2008, landscapers dug two feet into the ground of Patrick Mahaffy鈥檚 backyard, located near Chautauqua Park in Boulder. They unearthed 83 stone tools from a packed hole the size of a shoebox. The cache was about 13,000 years old. 

The tools 鈥� now called the 鈥淢ahaffy Cache鈥� 鈥� were most likely left by nomadic hunter-gatherers known as Clovis, who lived in North America toward the end of the last ice age. The most distant tools likely originated in the Uinta Mountains in northeast Utah and traveled with groups of people to Boulder, said anthropology professor Douglas Bamforth, who Mahaffy originally invited to inspect the cache. Others were made from stone found between the Uintas and Boulder. 

鈥淥ne of the things that we have not emphasized as much as other aspects of the cache is how distinct it is,鈥� Bamforth said. 鈥淚t is like many Clovis-age caches in that the stone the tools are made from is from far away, but the diversity of different kinds of tools and artifacts in it is very unusual.鈥�

The cache is one of two Clovis collections to undergo a blood protein analysis on the tools, which determined that hunters used them to butcher Ice Age horses, camels, sheep and bears. The tools include knives, blades and flint scraps. 

鈥淢y favorite is the large biface made from Tiger chert that looks like a double-bitted ax,鈥� said Bamforth. 鈥淚 have never, ever seen another artifact like that.鈥� 

See the Mahaffy Cache in the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History. 

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Photo by Glenn Asakawa

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In the summers of 1958 and 1960, 蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 first curator of

• This skull was found near Kit Carson.
• The remains from about 200 bison were found in a dry arroyo bed.
• These bison lived about 10,000 years ago.
• More than a dozen well-preserved skulls were found at the site.
• 3D scanning helps reconstruct broken specimens. 

 anthropology, Joe Ben Wheat, excavated the Olsen-Chubbuck site, an area near Kit Carson, 蜜糖直播, that contained remains of bison dating to 8200 B.C.

The site gave insight into techniques Native hunters used to kill the approximately 200 bison more than 10,000 years ago, which would have provided them with about 60,000 pounds of meat.

鈥淲heat鈥檚 detailed analysis of the bison remains helped researchers under-stand the sophistication of ancient bison hunting tactics; reconstruct how and why they were processed, butchered and prepared; and demonstrated the importance of the bison and buffalo in the lives of the earliest people of 蜜糖直播 and the Front Range,鈥� said William Taylor, assistant professor and archaeology curator at the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History.

Now, with the help of a grant from the History 蜜糖直播鈥檚 State Historical Fund, Taylor鈥檚 team is working to preserve these bison artifacts for the

 future, including making 3D scans of the fossils, such as the one pictured here. The team is also rethinking the ways they care for the animal remains in the museum collections, said Taylor, who also teaches and conducts research in archaeozoology, the study of ancient animal remains.

鈥淲e are working with tribal partners to develop culturally informed practices and policies that will restore respect, transparency and care of these resources to the communities they belong to,鈥� he said.

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Photo 漏 University of 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History

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蜜糖直播 Promise Program Expansion

This spring, 蜜糖直播 Boulder announced an expansion of its 蜜糖直播 Promise program, which covers tuition and fees for 蜜糖直播 resident students with significant financial need. The expansion doubles the number of students eligible for the program, increasing funding for incoming, transfer and continuing students. The move was made possible in part by the passage of 蜜糖直播 Senate Bill 96, which increases the university's ability to support institutionally funded merit scholarships and need-based grants for resident students. 

Everest Germs Can Last Decades 

蜜糖直播 Boulder-led research determined that human microbes found in the soil of Mount Everest 鈥� left by sneezes, coughs, nose-blowing and more 鈥� were resilient enough to survive in a dormant state for decades (or even centuries) in harsh conditions at high elevations. The study was the first to use next-generation gene sequencing technology to analyze soil from above 26,000 feet on Everest. The findings suggest ways to better understand environmental limitations to life on Earth and where life could exist on other planets or cold moons. 

Eggshells Reveal New Elephant Bird Lineage

Eggshell remnants from eggs larger than footballs reveal information about a now-extinct new lineage of elephant bird that roamed northeastern Madagascar more than 1,200 years ago. This study, published in , marks the first time a new elephant bird lineage has been found without any skeletal remains. The research will help scientists learn more about birds that once lived 鈥� and why so many have gone extinct. 

Heard Around Campus 

鈥淚t feels to me like the very early days of widespread adoption of the internet in terms of how impactful this could, eventually, be for everyday life.鈥�

鈥� Casey Fiesler, associate professor in 蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 Department of Information Science, on the swift rise of artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT. 

83掳

Average temperature (June鈥�September)

7

Average inches of rain (June鈥�September)

6

Summer sessions offered by 蜜糖直播 Boulder

8,181

Students enrolled in summer classes in 2022

90%

Summer students who are undergraduates

62%

Summer students who are Arts and Sciences majors

36%

Classes that meet completely or partially in-person

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Photo credit: Eric Daft, National Geographic

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Ancient Elephant Bone Tools 

蜜糖直播 researchers surveyed the highest number of flanked bone tools made by pre-modern hominids ever discovered.

400,000

Years ago humans produced sophisticated tools from bones near Rome, Italy

13 ft.

Height of the straight-tusked elephants whose bones made the tools

98

Tools identified

1

Smoothing tool found that wouldn鈥檛 become common until 100,000 years later

1979鈥�1991

Years the site, Castel di Guido, was excavated

2021

The team鈥檚 findings were published in the journal Plos One

Alum Wins Breakthrough Prize

JILA physicist Jun Ye (PhDPhys鈥�97) was awarded the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his groundbreaking atomic clock research. The optical lattice clock he designed enables precision tests of the laws of nature. His clocks are so precise, they would not gain or lose a second in about 15 billion years. Ye has worked at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and 蜜糖直播 Boulder, for more than two decades. 

Theatre Program Receives Record-Breaking Gift 

Roe Green (Comm, Thtr鈥�70) gave $5 million to 蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 theatre program, the largest ever for the Department of Theatre & Dance. The gift will fund an acoustic upgrade for the University Theatre, establish endowed funds for student scholarships and fund events designed to further students鈥� careers. In recognition of the donation, 蜜糖直播 will change the name of University Theatre to the Roe Green Theatre, which is expected to reopen after renovations in fall 2023. 

Fish Fins Inspire New Designs

The long, thin bones in fish fins contain segmented hinges that enable the fins to be flexible and strong. 蜜糖直播 Boulder mechanical engineering professor Francois Barthelat and his team are studying the little-researched mechanical benefits of this segmented structure, with the hope that similarly modeled designs could aid in better underwater propulsion systems, new robotic materials and aircraft  design. 

Heard Around Campus 

 

When people ask you, 鈥榃hy do you like horror?鈥欌�hey phrase that really carefully. 鈥� What they really mean is, 鈥榃hy are you such a weirdo?鈥欌��

 

鈥� 蜜糖直播 Boulder English professor of distinction Steven Graham Jones in a 蜜糖直播 Boulder Today interview talking about his new horror novel My Heart is a Chainsaw, published by Simon & Schuster.

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Photos courtesy 蜜糖直播 Boulder 

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In the midst of 30 years of primate research in Madagascar, 蜜糖直播 Boulder anthropology professor Michelle Sauther and her colleagues had continual encounters with another animal: Cats.

She wondered how these cats, which have tabby-like coloration, could wind up in Madagascar, an island with no native felines.

鈥淲hen I first started working in Madagascar, I noticed that these cats all seemed to look the same,鈥� said Sauther, who has researched primates in the area for 30 years. 鈥淭hey were big, and they were always the same color.鈥�

The results of the team鈥檚 DNA test on 30 of the animals 鈥� published in the journal Conservation Genetics 鈥� revealed they were

Felis catus, the same species as the beloved house pets we own today.

鈥淭he real worry is: What are these cats doing?鈥� said Sauther, who is particularly concerned for the highly endangered lemurs unique to Madagascar. 鈥淎re they posing a threat to animals in Madagascar?

Maybe they鈥檙e just part of the local ecology.鈥�

The team traced their origins to the Arabian Sea trade routes originating in places like modern-day Dubai, Oman and Kuwait that have existed for as long as 1,000 years. The cats most likely traveled with the people on the ships, Sauther said.

鈥淐ats have essentially gone with us everywhere we鈥檝e gone,鈥� Sauther said. 鈥淲e can see that journey of humans and their pets going back pretty deep in time.鈥�

More must be known about the cats鈥� origins and biology to know their true threat to native species. But for now, the reason for the cats鈥� puzzling appearances are answered.

Said Sauther: 鈥淲e now know that these mysterious cats are domestic cats with a really interesting backstory.鈥�

Read more about this story at . 

Photo courtesy Michelle Sauther

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Name: Hale Science Building

Year Built: 1893

Architect: Varian & Sterner; east and west wings built in 1910 by Gove & Walsh

Formerly Housed: Hale was the first science building on campus and at one point housed all the sciences, a small museum and the School of Law. The building was named after the second university president, Horace Hale.

Today: The Department of Anthropology

Once Upon a Time: When the building was being designed, the university鈥檚 regents wished to make Hale the most thoroughly equipped scientific building in the country. Rather than the typical construction with iron nails, brackets and hinges, all the metal in the building consisted of brass so that magnetic interference would not distort radio signals or transmission experiments.

Did You Know: The university鈥檚 first Natural History Museum was originally housed on the third floor of the Hale Building until it moved into its current home in the Henderson Building in 1937.

Have a Memory to Share? Email editor@colorado.edu. 

Check out our other building posts here.


Information and historic photos courtesy of 蜜糖直播 Heritage Center; Colored photos by Glenn Asakawa/University of 蜜糖直播 and Julia Tortoisehugger

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蜜糖直播鈥檚 Indiana Jones

I was very pleased to see the article on Earl Morris in the spring 2018 edition of the Coloradan [pp. 13-14]. He was a superb scholar and superb human being. I attended the same schools at the same time as did his daughters Sarah and Elizabeth. Their mother, Ann Axtell Morris, wrote another very interesting and well-received book called Digging in Yucatan. After she died, Earl married Lucille Bowman 鈥� the principal of Highland School, my first-grade teacher and life-long friend. They continued to live and entertain in his charming artifact-filled home in Boulder鈥檚 Geneva Park until his death from a stroke in 1956. Many thanks for the article!

Orin Dale Seright&苍产蝉辫;(贰苍驳濒鈥�55)
Spring Valley, CA

Earl Morris (Psych1914; MA1916) was a great American archaeologist who inspired a generation and more of Southwesterners to get out there to see the remains of prehistory, breathe it in, and then study, research and pass it on [鈥淥ur Own Indiana Jones,鈥� pp. 13-14]. I was one of them, and especially lucky to be set in motion by an experience at 蜜糖直播 with Earl Morris himself.

In 1952 I was an untraveled sophomore with a science scholarship, but not a clue as to what field to use it in. My boyfriend, however, had already visited Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly, and was excited to discover that their excavator, Morris, was teaching a rare class. He jumped to take it.

At a time when professors were generally more formal and detached, Morris invited his class to come to his home on The Hill for a look at his tools and collections (which later formed important holdings at the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History). I went, too, and listened and looked as the great man showed us ancient woven sandals, pots containing small desiccated corncobs and field notebooks. With evident enjoyment, he told stories and discussed meanings of each piece and answered our questions. In that two hours I became truly caught in the spell and the content of Southwestern archaeology!

I majored in anthropology, published on Mesa Verde archaeology, specialized in material culture and for 30 years curated American Indian collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. My long-ago 鈥渂oyfriend鈥� became my husband, Laurance Herold (MGeog鈥�56), a University of Denver professor who made discoveries about prehistoric people鈥檚 adaptations to environment.

Thank you 鈥� profoundly 鈥� Earl Morris!

Joyce Herold (Anth鈥�55; MA鈥�59)
Denver

Riot on The Hill 

Love the Coloradan and its articles, but this one [鈥淩iot of 鈥�71,鈥� p. 8] by Paul Danish needs a little more info. My boyfriend then/husband now was on The Hill the first night of the riots. The reason for the large crowds on the street to begin with was that bomb threats were called into The Sink and Tulagi鈥檚, so they made everyone leave those busy hangouts. A lot of people milling on the street were not sure what was going on. It was a scary time for sure!

Linda Bowes (骋别谤鈥�70)
Longmont, Colo. 

Balloons

I received my alum mag this week and I was disappointed to read about the space minor balloon release experiment [鈥溍厶侵辈� Around,鈥� pp. 45-46]. I know it is not always easy to avoid generating trash and litter, but I wonder if (and hope that) another activity could be persued to engage students? That would be my challenge to the program, especially since part of the goal is to 鈥渇ind pathways to address the significant issues our planet faces.鈥� Thanks for listening!

Dakota-Rae Westveer (颁辞尘尘鈥�13)
Boulder

CWA鈥檚 70th

My wife, Alice Higman Reich, and I were glad to see that the Conference on World Affairs and its 70th anniversary were acknowledged [鈥淚nfographic,鈥� pp. 23-24], but I was disappointed not to see at least a mention of Alice鈥檚 father, the conference founder and director for 45 years, Howard Higman. Among many others, he and long-time CWA participant Roger Ebert were the best of friends. Granted, Howard could be controversial at times, but, suffice it to say, if it had not been for him, there would be no CWA. This was his most important legacy to 蜜糖直播, the institution he loved, and I would hate to see it forgotten.

Lee Shannon (惭贰诲耻鈥�72)
Denver 

Getting Social 

Spring issue comments spotted on Facebook.

Of past speakers at the annual Conference on World Affairs [鈥淚nfographic鈥漖, Sarah Russell wrote: 鈥淓leanor Roosevelt?? Oh, wow, that 鈥�55 audience was so lucky.鈥�

The Coloradan鈥檚 story and photo with 蜜糖直播鈥檚 Earl Morris (Psych1914; MA1916) prompted Myron Rosenberg to write: 鈥淲hen I moved to Boulder with my parents in 1949, my father drove a 1941 Buick. It had running boards, upon which I would ride home from Lincoln Elementary School at lunch. Note the water can next to the driver. And those are bed rolls on the running board. We, too, slept in parks, or in fields along the way. On the front of our car dad hung a two-gallon canvas water bag. The wetted fabric, exposed to the air current, caused evaporative cooling, maybe my first recollection of physics...followed by a pickup tailgate hitting me in the mouth as it fell into my tiptoed face. (Dad told me I was minding someone else鈥檚 business...a trait I鈥檝e only enhanced, I fear.) I remember we had a whole bunch of crap tied on to the roof. This cross-country trip, prior to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, was slow, two-lane and memorably scenic. This type of travel was fun, and a veritable thrill I have never forgotten.鈥�

Regarding 蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 new marijuana research methods, described in 鈥淩esearch on the Road,鈥� several readers weighed in. Mindy Grinold Bicknell (Rec鈥�84) wrote: 鈥淧roud of my alma mater鈥檚 creative approach to much needed research.鈥� 

Photos courtesy the CWA

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If Earl Morris (Psych1914; MA1916) wasn鈥檛 the inspiration for Indiana Jones, you could be forgiven for thinking so: He looked the part.

A preeminent archaeologist of the American Southwest鈥檚 Four Corners area and a seminal figure in the study of pre-European human societies in the broader region, Morris traveled to far-flung dusty digs in a truck called 鈥淥ld Joe,鈥� a fedora shadowing his face.

鈥淭here are very few places I鈥檝e worked where Morris wasn鈥檛 there before me,鈥� said Stephen Lekson, curator of archaeology at the University of 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History and a professor of anthropology.

Understanding the early Southwest seems to have been destiny for Morris, who was born in New Mexico in 1889 and reported finding his first artifact, a dipper bowl, at age three.

During a four-decade-plus career, he excavated thousands of artifacts and many ruins, supported by museums, scientific organizations and universities, including 蜜糖直播, leading to a scrupulous portrait of the region before European settlement.

The museum today contains thousands of items Morris unearthed, among them flutes, sandals, baskets, bags, pottery and weapons, Lekson said.

Morris studied various native societies throughout the Southwest and Central America, and was especially influential in revealing the story of the ancestral Pueblo Indians, once called Anasazi. He鈥檚 also well known for his discovery and reconstruction of the Great Kiva, or great room, at what today is Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico. (His dwelling there is now the visitor鈥檚 center).

Morris worked closely with his first wife, archaeologist Ann Axtell Morris, who in 1933 wrote a general interest book called Digging in the Southwest.

Since the 1981 debut of Steven Spielberg鈥檚 Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones film, various sleuths have argued that Hiram Bingham III, who rediscovered Machu Picchu, seems to match the character most closely. But George Lucas, who wrote the film鈥檚 story, has said the character was based on a type 鈥� 鈥渁 soldier of fortune in a leather jacket and that kind of hat鈥� common in 1930s serial films 鈥� not on a specific person.

So, Earl Morris, who died in Boulder in 1956, wasn鈥檛 a pop culture archaeologist. He was a real one, and among the best.

Photo 漏University of 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History

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Neanderthals get a bad rap. 蜜糖直播 archaeologist Paola Villa is helping set the record straight. 

Last May, two stone circles found deep in a French cave set off a ripple of awe around the globe. Built with chunks of stalagmites snapped from the cave floor, the circles dated to 176,000 years ago 鈥� more than 100,000 years before modern humans pushed out of Africa.

The international news media called the discoveries 鈥渆xtraordinary,鈥� 鈥渞emarkable鈥� and 鈥渟hocking.鈥� Researchers said there was no doubt the circle structures in Bruniquel cave 鈥� the largest of them roughly 20 feet across and both set nearly a quarter of a mile past the entrance in total darkness 鈥� had been created by Neanderthals, close human relatives long stereotyped as knuckle-dragging dimwits.

In the days before the findings became public in the journal Nature, 蜜糖直播 Boulder archaeologist Paola Villa鈥檚 phone was ringing and her email dinging. An internationally known Neanderthal expert not involved in the study, she was in hot demand for an advance, independent take.

鈥淎 plausible explanation,鈥� she told The Atlantic, 鈥渋s that this was a meeting place for some type of ritual behavior.鈥�

The interpretation reflected Villa鈥檚 own view, increasingly popular, that Neanderthals were far more nimble intellectually than they get credit for.

Neanderthals and modern humans are both thought to be descendants of Homo heidelbergensis, an extinct species that roamed Africa and Europe beginning some 600,000 years ago. A bit shorter and stockier than modern humans, with a large brow and no chin and likely built for survival in colder environments, Neanderthals overlapped with humans, then disappeared some 40,000 years ago. For students of human evolution, they remain a source of deep fascination.

The Neanderthal 

• Humans鈥� closest extinct relative
   
• Emerged about 400,000 years ago
   
• Went extinct about 40,000 years ago
   
• Overlapped and interbred with humans
   
• Contributed about 2.5 percent of modern humans鈥� DNA, on average
   
• Controlled fire, made tools, hunted, buried their dead, collected and wore ornaments; possibly had spoken language

Sources: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; Paola Villa, 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History

Villa, a curator adjunct at the University of 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History, has been building a case for Neanderthals as an advanced species for a decade. And Bruniquel cave, where the stalagmite circles were found, offers compelling evidence of sophisticated Neanderthal activity, she said.

It contains plenty of evidence of ancient fire, for instance. More than 100 fragments of stalagmites and animal bones bear red and black streaks made by deliberately applied heat strong enough to break rocks. In 2011, Villa and Dutch colleague Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University published a paper detailing evidence of the continuous control of fire by Neanderthals dating back a breathtaking 400,000 years, about the time they first appeared on the landscape.

鈥淭hese people must have had torches,鈥� she said of the Bruniquel Neanderthals.

The were not brutes 鈥� and we are now seeing how adaptable and exceptional they were." 

One of the most extraordinary ways Neanderthals used fire was to make pitch, a sticky black liquid they invented more than 200,000 years ago to set stone tools into wooden shafts. Since the only way to create pitch from trees was to burn bark peels at high temperatures (more than 700 degrees F) in the absence of air, Villa and Roebroeks surmised that Neanderthals dug small holes in the ground, inserted birch bark peels, lit them and capped them with stones.

鈥淔or those who say Neanderthals did not have elevated mental capacities,鈥� she said, 鈥淚 think this is good evidence to the contrary.鈥�

Born in Rome, Villa became interested in science at an early age. After reading a book on archaeology when she was 16, she decided it was her calling. She graduated from the University of Rome with a doctorate in Etruscan archaeology.

鈥淪ince then,鈥� she said, 鈥渁rchaeology has never disappointed me.鈥�

After coming to the United States in the 1970s, she earned a second doctorate in archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in the Lower Paleolithic period of southern France, roughly 1 million to 300,000 years ago. She settled in at 蜜糖直播 Boulder in 1982.

As evidence piled up that Neanderthals were a creative, successful bunch, Villa and Roebroeks threw down the gauntlet in 2014, publishing a paper bluntly refuting the idea that Neanderthals were ape-like dunces inferior to humans.

The pair, who read and speak a combined six languages, reviewed more than 140 scientific papers citing evidence of various Neanderthal activities documented over the prior 15 years. Their study advanced the case for the Neanderthal as a complex, intentional creature.

鈥淏oth Wil and I believe that progress in science depends on precision,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here are many incorrect and imprecise ideas about Neanderthals in the scientific literature.鈥�

Neanderthals were not limited to small ranges or valleys, for instance, as some claimed 鈥� their presence has been documented from Portugal to Siberia at more than 180 sites, suggesting adaptability.

As for their supposed lack of sophisticated hunting skills, they organized big game hunts in which they drove herds of steppe bison and horses over cliffs. They were successful in catching small, fast game-like birds and rabbits. And microfossils found in Neanderthal teeth and in ancient hearths indicate they downed wild peas, olives, date palms and pistachios.

We're all part Neanderthal." 

They also used weapons, including wooden spears similar to modern javelins. Villa has shown that small, sharp spear points Neanderthals created from stone flakes and cores were similar to those produced about the same time by modern humans using different techniques.

Villa can also rattle off examples of symbolism in Neanderthal culture: They buried their dead; used red ochre pigment, likely for body painting; collected feathers and talons from birds as ornaments (four Neanderthal sites in France contained deliberately cut eagle claws); and seem to have used perforated animal teeth, seashells and ivory for pendants.

In all likelihood, Neanderthals had speech, too.

鈥淚f Neanderthals had symbols, that means they had social values,鈥� Villa said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they could have organized communal hunts, or transmitted their culture from parents to children over many generations, without language.鈥�

The reasons for Neanderthals鈥� demise remain murky. Some scholars have proposed that modern humans wiped them out, though Villa said there鈥檚 no evidence of mass violence. Anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals were neighbors and even lovers in some parts of Europe, at least for a few thousand years. 蜜糖直播 2.5 percent of human DNA comes from Neanderthals.

Rather than genocide, said Villa, it鈥檚 more likely that inbreeding and assimilation between Neanderthals and modern humans did them in 鈥� an inherent mating incompatibility that led to miscarriages and perhaps infertility.

鈥淣eanderthals lived for 350,000 years under various climate conditions, longer than modern humans have been around,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey were not brutes, and we are now seeing how adaptable and exceptional they were.鈥�
 

Illustration by Tim O'Brien 

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