This Could Be the Greatest Mystery in Human History (Michael Button)

For almost all of history, we weren't alone.

Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis and others all shared the world with us. They made tools, buried their dead, created art, cared for the sick and even interbred with our own species.

So if they were so similar to us... why are we the only humans left?



Homo Sapiens may have co-mingled with these other species and/or killed them off if they were noticeably different. Different human tribes have warred against each other for eons while, at the same time, there has been trade between different groups. But if these other groups had some radical behavioural feature, or morphological difference, they would have certainly been subjected to warfare from Homo Sapiens. Consider today's human populations with distinct groupings of Asians, Africans, Arabs, and Europeans, separated by difficult-to-traverse terrain rather than these groups living side by side. And within each racial group there are further divisions that has led to internal warring. This does not bode well for the peaceful co-mingling hypothesis.   

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, July 30, 2026.]