Neanderthal Extinction Pieced Together

Discovery Channel ^ | 1/27/04 | Jennifer Viegas

[TexasTransplant]

Tough Love

[ClearBlueSky]

Huh? Fascinating thread, but I haven't posted anything on it. Did you mean your reply for someone else?

[SunkenCiv]

Since it's been an additional seven years, I'm glad the excrement was fossilized. ;') The researchers there were hoping to find some (obviously non-fossilized) organic material that could be sequenced. AFAIK they didn't find any, but perhaps something could be found on Scirus.

[SunkenCiv]

And I suspect that [scary organ music] they were murdered!!! ;')

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, I always get a good laugh out of vegetarians who aren't scientists, but play some in the popular media. :') Speaking of popular media, the quite Democrat folk musician Joel Mabus has a song, "Hitler Was A Vegetarian" in which he jokes that there are some advantages to vegetarianism, "but moral superiority is not one of them."

The "unique monogamous society" is a reference to the harem-type structure (or reverse harem -- a single reproductive female) common to most primate societies. Marmosets, cute little primates from South America (but don't call 'em monkeys, because the monkeyologists will get all squinky and scold that they aren't true monkeys) don't seem to be, but I'm not sure about that. There's a Central American primate which is completely promiscuous in both genders.

Anyway, I'm sure vegetarians also voted heavily for Bill Clinton, just for the sake of being ideologically incoherent. ;')

[Siamese Princess]

Loser species go extinct.

Nowadays, they collect every kind of welfare benefit imaginable, outbreed the people paying the bills, eventually take over by sheer force of numbers, and society collapses into the very early stone age.

[VadeRetro]

While some researchers theorize that Neanderthals also are related to humans, yet another study, published in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, claims that the skulls of Neanderthals and humans differ too much for Neanderthals to be our relatives.

There is no question that Neanderthals, when they were around, were our nearest relatives. The question is whether they were the same species. In taxonomic terms, it is a question of Homo neanderthalensis versus Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The difference would be whether interbreeding was likely or even possible.

In either case, both populations have diverged from a common ancestor (Homo erectus, perhaps). It's just a question of how far that divergence has gone.

[curmudgeonII]

I think she's just a reporter.

One of my pet gripes, as someone with a moderately solid background in science, is that many of these newspeople who write about science may know a moderate amount about reporting, but ususally know very little about science.

[night reader]

Missing link is still missing.

I dunno. We've all spotted our share. LOL! You know, the kind who'se forehead slopes back...a lot.
========================================
S'posed to be an entire convention of 'em in Boston this week!

[night reader]

They could interbreed and produce off spring that look different from the parents.

You sayin' we're mongrels???

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Funny. I was taught that the Neanderthal was adapted to a cold climate i.e. large nasal cavity to warm inhaled air, bulky body etc. Oh well times change!

[night reader]

The author may have confused Fahrenheit with Centigrade. Freezing on the Centigrade scale does come in at a convenient zero degrees. However, I do have to wonder at how much science the writer has, being unable to differentiate between these two scales - something any halfway bright high school sophomore ought to be able to do.

Hey, if NASA can confuse English and Metric measurements, surely a reporter can be excused for confusing Fahrenheit and Celsius! Journalists ain't the brightest bulbs in the pack, you know!

[Bonaparte]

"...but ususally know very little about science."

Roger that! The sensationalist overstatement in much of their medical coverage is another problem. (Dramatic breakthrough! New miracle cure!) It encourages unrealistic expectations and makes life difficult for health care providers. Then there are the flat-out lies these "reporters" spread, such as the phony correlation between second-hand tobacco smoke and major respiratory disease or all the Chicken Little "global warming" alarmism.

[curmudgeonII]

The sensationalist overstatement in much of their medical coverage is another problem.

Something that bothers me is that if they are so often wrong in the reportage of scientific, medical and health delivery items [things in whch I have some knowledge], what about things that I know little about?

Thank goodness for the internet and sites like FR where I can [sometimes] get accurate, unbiased, information.

[Bonaparte]

Amen, brother!

[Calamari]

I am saying that maybe they were just bred out of existance not killed off or out competed by " modern man".

I would imagine that there are no real pure breds in the current population on earth if our distant ancestors were roaming the planet tens of thousands of years ago.

This is an awfully old thread.

[VadeRetro]

Funny. I was taught that the Neanderthal was adapted to a cold climate i.e. large nasal cavity to warm inhaled air, bulky body etc. Oh well times change!

I think that's still true. As I read the article, a naked Neanderthal would still be more cold-adapted than a naked "modern" sapiens. The modern population had invented better cold adaptations. (Clothing, improved weaponry to secure food supply, etc.)

[Question_Assumptions]

Rapidly becoming the Fantasy Channel.

The Discovery Channel and other such channels (as well as the networks) have always had a problem with presenting fringe theories as fact but the Discovery Channel has been influenced by their partnership with The New York Times (the "Discovery/Times Channel") and I've noticed an increase in "lefty" subject matter lately.

[Sam Cree]

There is something about the seashore, and the sea itself, that awakens something at a very fundamental level in most all humans. That's why I kind of like the aquatic ape theory.

some people look kind of neanderthal.

[SunkenCiv]

You and I appear to be the only ones to notice that in the in reply to link. ;')

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