Dr. Genevieve von Petzinger

They're moving around.

But there's huge genetic variation between even the Neanderthal groups.

Now, when I say huge, obviously, this is teeny, teeny, tiny, tiny changes at a full DNA level, but enough that we would consider them again, that we're like, oh, this is neat.

We can actually track their differences.

That sounds about right.

Yeah.

So something like that.

So again, very successful species.

And, you know, it really makes you wonder too, speaking again of like, sometimes we just don't know what we don't know.

Keep in mind, we're trying to rebuild entire worlds out of one tiny piece of stuff, which is that with that kind of time depth, most things have not survived.

If it's organic materials, if it's wood, if it's, you know, skin, if it's anything like... We don't have it.

We only have bones and stones.

And so, you know, I often say it this way, which is it's almost like we're like... It's like we're peeking through like a tiny keyhole in a door and we're trying to rebuild their entire world from it, right?

So it's a really... This is where sometimes, you know, we have to really try and figure out what...

Not just, oh, this is the thing, but what could this thing tell us about either how they see the world or how they are thinking about the world?

And that's what we're looking for in the archaeological record.

That's what we use it for is we try and be like, oh, well, this is interesting.

They're doing this new thing.

that suggests something might have changed in their brain, or maybe they have this new culture thing, or this is why we care.

It's neat to just make lists of things, but really what makes it so interesting is how we're able to try and understand these mysterious and yet very closely related ancestors.