Sapiens

Neanderthals and archaic Homo sapiens probably also had a hard time talking behind each other’s backs – a much maligned ability which is in fact essential for cooperation in large numbers. Genetic evidence hints that at least some Neanderthals may have had fair skin and hair. {© Anthropologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich.} But if the Neanderthals, Denisovans and other human species didn’t merge with Sapiens, why did they vanish? The truth of this theory has been known at least since the 1950s, when the American psychologist Harry Harlow studied the development of monkeys.