What other abilities did modern humans have that allowed them to flourish while Neandertals disappeared?
How modern people and Neandertals differed, and what that meant for the rise of modern people, are hotly debated these days. My own view is that moderns and Neandertals shared many environments for thousands of years; they resembled each other closely, used the same tools, had the same habits. I don’t accept that Neandertals were somehow doomed to extinction because of the rise of the moderns. Eventually, Neandertals disappeared, but whether they were driven to extinction by moderns or were just genetically swamped into modern European peoples is an open question today. Q) You write that theories about human origins are supposed to be rigorously scientific. You also note that the key to getting your theories accepted by the scientific community is to tell a story. Your book employs several very strong narratives. Is there a danger that the storytelling might overshadow the science? Is there such a thing as responsible scientific storytelling? A) Human evolution is the greatest story ev
