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Early Humans, Including Neanderthals and Early Homo sapiens
Timeline of human evolution (continued):
- 800,000 to 1 million years ago: Evidence from archaeology that hominids controlled fire. A milestone in music: the first campfire songs!
- 200,000 years ago: Early modern Homo sapiens appears.
- 200,000 years ago: Unfairly maligned Homo neanderthalensis appears. Became extinct approximately 30,000 years ago.
H. neanderthalensis was a hardy, intelligent species distinct from H. sapiens, and with a larger brain. DNA evidence shows Homo sapiens did not “descend” from Neanderthals.
A Neanderthal hyoid bone—the horseshoe-shaped bone above the larynx— from about 45,000 years ago has pretty much the same shape as a modern human hyoid bone. Neanderthals also had other cranial characteristics required for vocal music and speech, which fall well within the human range. Neanderthals probably spoke and sang and had similar mental abilities as H. sapiens.