Italy's first Neanderthal dates back 250,000 years

The Local ^ | November 4, 2015 | unattributed

[gleeaikin]

So do chimps et al have 24 pairs, or were they also miscounted? And do you know the situation for Bonobos? I seem to recall a similar story regarding Aristotle regarding the number of teeth horses have. There were great philosophical arguments supporting different numbers, and then Aristotle said they should just count them.

[SunkenCiv]

Chimps (including Bonobos) have 24 pairs.

Thanks, that Aristotle reference was interesting — seemed awfully reasonable for Aristotle, who was a total martinet in his conclusions about things.

http://tikalon.com/blog/blog_archive/2006/September.html#the_philosophers_tooth

[BroJoeK]

mountainlion: "It would be nice if they gave the methodology and data instead of just the opinion or theories."

There are several methods, all highly technical in their descriptions, and each produces somewhat different results.
For anybody who wished to debate the merits of one method versus another, that would be a lengthy book, not a short summarized article.

But I would argue those precise numbers are somewhat irrelevant, since the main point they demonstrate is that humans are all very closely related to each other, pretty closely related to some others, like Neanderthals, not so closely related to chimpanzees & other great apes, and only distantly related to other mammals, vertebrates, animals, etc.
So the precise numbers are somewhat irrelevant, since they all demonstrate those facts.

[SunkenCiv]

for later:

Neanderthals mated with modern humans much earlier than previously thought, study finds
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/cshl-nmw021516.php