What happened about 45,000 years ago that turned us modern humans, from the dull mentality of Neanderthals,?

creation of the y chromosome!

or the genetic engineering of the y chromosome into the genome.

Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnon (early modern humans) coexisted for 10,000 years in Europe,

west Asia and the Middle East, until the Neanderthals went extinct 27,000 years ago. Interbreeding did take place. Genetic testing has proven that all modern humans, except for Sub-Saharan Africans,

have 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA in them. And while this Neanderthal DNA is now dormant, the sudden mixing of a different human species DNA into our own could have been the catalyst that drove us to the next level of evolution.

I believe the 'amazingly advanced people' that we became was due to the simple fact that we were a natural tool-making species. That gave us, not a huge edge, but an overwhelming advantage as a new species.

I think I can explain the dynamic. Both the Neanderthals and us, Cro-Magnum, stumbled on the hand-held stone ax. We both used that and this was the start, or catalyst. Both sub-species continued and both evolved a good set of tools which gave them a survival edge. However, our tools were more advanced, more effective and better suited to the environment. I suspect this is why We survived and they died out.

Tools were everything. The Neanderthals used the exact same hand ax for a million years. We took the ax and tied it to a stout branch and made it into a formidable weapon. Smashing that down on the paw of one of the big cats, who always regarded Humans as 'lunch,' suddenly became very wary of Humans. Humans could inflict serious damage. The Big Cat started to be afraid of us, instead of the other way around. es

We were graduating into becoming the Top Predator.

Tools were our future. We became advanced Humans through simple effective tools. Axes, spears, fire and cooperation.

I think the mutations that occurred during that time were able to advance more rapidly due to a better diet and the ability to live a less nomadic lifestyle. This was partly due to the retreating of the ice sheet at the end of the ice age, as it provided better opportunity for healthy mutations to advance and thrive, aided by a better diet and easier life, as compared to what had been before. Better nutrition and less difficult survival, allowed the intelligence mutations to suddenly become viable assets as compared to the advantages of other mutations that thrived during the ice age, being as there were different requirements as to what was advantages to the species and what was not. The environment plays a large role in what sort of mutations become more and less important, thus allowing them to advance over others that become less important with change in surroundings.

Humans and Neanderthals were different species, DNA analysis has confirmed this.

Humans did not evolve from Neanderthals and fossils of fully modern humans exist in parallel with fossils of Neanderthal. Modern humans have been around well over 100,000 years.

Clay pottery vessels for storage of grains created a surplus of food resources leading to leisure time. Resulting in contemplation of life science etc.

I've not seen any evidence of a dramatic change 45 kya. Can you please cite references to this news?

If art is an example of these cognitive abilities that you describe, then we have evidence of painting going back 100,000 years ago.

Modern humans reached Australia by between 60 kya and 46 kya, and yet were already perfectly capable of the same cognitive abilities. As are all modern human populations - in Africa, Europe, Australia, etc, strongly suggesting that these cognitive abilities were already present before dispersal, and long before 45 kya.

We didn't move from flint axe to spaceshp in 45 kya. Technology has actually accelerated much faster than that. Globally, some human societies moved from flint axe to space ship in 10,000 years, here in the British Isles, we only moved from the flint axe a mere 3,000 years ago. For some human societies, the leap started only a few hundred years ago. For a very few surviving and isolated societies today (e.g. remote islands in the Indian Ocean), they are still using flint or stone axes. Their leap hasn't even started yet - even though they are anatomically fully modern humans, no doubt with perfectly functioning modern human cognitive abilities.

Human technology drip started during the Palaeolithic with innovations such as better stone working techniques, spear throwers, maybe even the bow at the end of that period, but it didn't really get started until the Neolithic Revolution. For this to have happened at the end of the last Ice Age, required the right series of events - the right climate, the right soils, the right combination of wild cereals and herbivores. Agriculture gave surplus value. It enabled far larger population. It enabled settlement. Class built on top of this, and elites could support a class of artisans. With artisans, literature and records could follow. With written records, humans could start to really develop technology, and pass down knowledge. The thing is Jack, this has all taken place during the past 10,000 years only. Until then, fully anatomically modern humans, equipped with art and their modern cognitive abilities, could not advance beyong hunting-gathering and your flint axe - even though they had been around for a long long time.

It is human technology - based on data, that is advancing, not humans physically. I can't build a spaceship, and I doubt that you could either. All that you do know is based on what you were educated, trained, or have read or heard or seen yourself. Without 10,000 years of accumulated technological data, we are reduced to the biological animal.

I have previously supplied links to fossil evidence that disputed your earlier notion that Homo sapiens suddenly appeared 45 kya. I supplied images and data that recorded much earlier Homo sapiens fossils - in a clear state of transition dating back to Omo at 195,000 years ago. You dismissed this evidence as 'BS and flannel'. Please don't resort to personal insults this time Jack.

EDIT: Every time that I cite evidence, you respond with personal insults. Grow up. Don't throw the rattle out of the pram when someone disagrees with your belief (faith), that E.T zapped our DNA.

The 3,000 year ago remark refers to the arrival of bronze age technology in the British lowlands. Until then, the Neolithic polished flint / stone axehead ruled supreme. However, the Neolithic itself only arrived here a mere 6,000 years ago. Until then, Britain was occupied by hunter-gatherers using mesolithic technologies.

You are suggesting that something was done to humans 45 kya that suddenly made us clever enough to develop human technology. I'm saying that there was very little technological advance until the development of agriculture - but that didn't start until at the very earliest, 10 kya, and for many people, not until much more recently.

There is no indesputable proof of a sudden change in cognitive abilities at 45 kya!

EDIT II: I followed your request and searched Google with that string. The first link is actually very good. You should read it, you'll find references to human art that precede 45,000 years ago - going back over 75,000 years ago. You should have also read that this is a debate, Some anthropologists are claiming a sudden change in cognitive ability 50 - 40 kya, but others disagree. There is eveidence as I already cited, of much earlier human art. It's indicisive - but only some are claiming a 45 kya change (then no doubt, as a result of natural selection), others disagree. There is no irrefutable proof of a 'sudden' 45 kya change in human cognitive abilities Jack.

Can I have the ten points now please, along with that usual thumbs down?

I believe they began to get more efficient and hunting and killing game and gathering food. This allowed more free time to start thinking of things other then the basics of food, water and shelter.

the monolith from 2001:a space odyssey