WI: Denisovans Migrate to the Americas

[Kerney]

I agree with the Neanderthals needing a much higher carloic intake. But am skeptical of the Denisovans. Do you have source?

Our direct knowledge of Denisovans is limited. But we do know they were more closely related to Neanderthals than Sapiens. So we can be pretty sure upper body strength is closer to Neanderthals....but we know little for sure.

My guess is needed more calories because of that frame, but they were under fewer enviromental stressers, so they probably matured more slowly and weren't as well adapted to the cold because those were things Neanderthals needed for their enviroment.

 

[garfieldleifrag]

But they will LOOK very different. and that will matter a lot. They likely will be exterminated before anyone realize they are "humans".

and they likely is hunter-gatherer, that what humans do in most of their history, farming is only very limited invention.
even if they develop some sort of Agriculture, Spanish would not recognize it

Even if they wanted to, the Spanish or whatever aren't going to be able to kill every last person in the Americas in a decade or two. There wasn't any sizeable European presence in the Pacific Northwest until the 19th century OTL.

 

[JSilvy]

I think in general any TL with more surviving species of human would see massive implications with regards to race. Some groups of people would be recognized as a different species, which would open the floodgates to scientific racism existing both between species and within Homo Sapiens as well. I think this would have profound effects on society at large.

 

[GuildedAgeNostalgia]

Our direct knowledge of Denisovans is limited. But we do know they were more closely related to Neanderthals than Sapiens. So we can be pretty sure upper body strength is closer to Neanderthals....but we know little for sure.

My guess is needed more calories because of that frame, but they were under fewer enviromental stressers, so they probably matured more slowly and weren't as well adapted to the cold because those were things Neanderthals needed for their enviroment.

When it comes to the cold Denisovans were very well adapted.

They lived in Siberia and Tibet.

 

[Kerney]

When it comes to the cold Denisovans were very well adapted.

They lived in Siberia and Tibet.

Yes, this is an example of errors in Sapien behavior when one (me, sample Sapien) is tired and stressed from dealing with annoying people IRL all day and trying to debate on the internet only thinking of the Denisovans who are contributing to the DNA in places like New Guinea and Australia.

 

[Deleted member 90563]

Based on genetic and archeological evidence, behavioral modernity may be 40k years old (with modern psychology coming with genetic changes that affected the brain within the past 10k years)

This simply can't be true. How could such a change happen and spread to all populations on all continents at that point in time? And I'm doubtful about the first claim being scientific fact, too.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

This simply can't be true. How could such a change happen and spread to all populations on all continents at that point in time? And I'm doubtful about the first claim being scientific fact, too.

Wasn't Tasmania already isolated from the rest of the world back then?

 

[Alias_The_J]

This simply can't be true. How could such a change happen and spread to all populations on all continents at that point in time? And I'm doubtful about the first claim being scientific fact, too.

The human brain has been shrinking, beyond that which can be explained by average changing body size, for thousands of years, across most of the human population. Many genetic changes have accelerated over the past 10k years- some of seem to be related to neurology. (this has been linked to what's called domestication syndrome) That cognitive modernity enabled humans to spread in Europe- about 40k years ago- was long-accepted in archeology.

No, it's not great evidence for saying that modern humans are cognitively superior, with there existed plenty of archeological evidence against this; it's also the absolute bottom of the range, and you can't really prove that there wasn't that there wasn't a cognitive shift 10k years ago (or 40k years ago)- which is the point; the evidence is sparse.

To be clear, my estimate for cognitive modernity tends toward the higher end of the range; IIRC we found evidence of H erectus using complex multi-step tools equal to qhat we ascribed to Neanderthals until we discovered them using birch-bark glue.