[exDemMom]

(NOTE DNA researchers say it was a different gene than the modern gene for red hair, but the principle is the same ~ and there's a reason the saber toothed tigers are gone).

Is the fact that the red hair gene is different a new finding?

The first time I ever saw the proposition that Neanderthals and homo sapiens had interbred, part of the evidence presented was that both Neanderthals and modern humans have members with red hair. I'll admit that I was not convinced by the argument; it's completely possible for color pigments in different species to arise independently. (With the new genetic evidence, I'm still on the fence about the whole thing; if Neanderthals and homo sapiens were interbreeding, then they weren't different species.)

[muawiyah]

In England interspecies breeding happens all the time ~ they've even stopped trains to watch.

But, that's a different issue. There's NO REASON to think of the Neanderthal as a different species ~ more like a different "race" I am sure.

One hypothesis about how they survived the Northern climate during SEVERAL ice ages is that they had twins in every pregnancy. That kicked their reproductive rate up to match the need.

That probably gave them four active mammaries.

Again, we digress. I'm still POd at the dentist for busting through that bony plate the first time I had Novocaine. It hurt.