Neanderthals among us?

latimes.com ^

[Soothesayer]

DID ANATOMICALLY modern humans interbreed with Neanderthals, the muscle-bound, big-browed and possibly mute cave dwellers who disappeared from Europe and the Middle East about 30,000 years ago? The answer may be less interesting than the fact that so many Homo sapiens are fixated on the question. The debate about whether there's a Neanderthal skeleton in our collective closet was revived last week when two groups of scientists reported that they had deciphered DNA from the thigh bone of a Neanderthal man who lived in Croatia 38,000 years ago. From their analysis of genetic material in the bone, the scientists estimated that Neanderthals and the modern people who supplanted them had 99.5% of their genes in common. This will come as an unpleasant surprise to anyone who remembers the film "Clan of the Cave Bear," in which a comely Cro-Magnon played by Daryl Hannah was adopted into a clan of brutish Neanderthals. But it will cheer anthropologists who argue that if you gave a Neanderthal a bath, a haircut and an iPod, he would blend in with any contemporary crowd. Since the discovery in the 19th century of Neanderthal remains in Germany's Neander Valley, scientific opinion has seesawed between the idea that Neanderthals were an evolutionary dead end only distantly related to modern humans and the view that at least some Neanderthals felt the urge to merge with smarter, nimbler modern humans who left Africa about 100,000 years ago.

[fso301]

You Tube Video

[Coyoteman]

Could you please provide some instruction/enlightenment regarding Prost1's speculations.

They seem to be nonsense.

[Dustbunny]

I have always thought that Children with Down's Syndrome are throw backs to the Neanderthal's that interbred.

[Salamander]

I always found that extremely perverse.

[shuckmaster]

The general consensus is that humans and Neanderthals had a common ancestor that diverged about 600,000 years ago. The group who are known as Neanderthals arrived in Europe approx 300,000 years ago and survived there until approx 35,000 ya. All modern humans descend from a small group that emerged on the outer banks of Eastern Africa about 180,000 ya and spread first across the shoreline of Arabia, India, and SE Asia. from 80,000 - 60,000 ya and then started moving inland into Europe and central Asia about 50,000 ya.

The question we all want to answer is whether or not Humans and Neanderthals were still genetically close enough to produce fertile offspring after they came back into contact with each other between 50,000-35,000 ya. Scientists are divided on the issue with most saying no but, quite a few saying yes. The evidence so far is inconclusive and quite debatable. This article doesn't present any new evidence either way.

[colorado tanker]

This is a great website that shows human migration out of Africa, also showing the ebb and flow of the glaciers and sea levels.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

[To Hell With Poverty]

66 posts on Neandertals among us and NO HELEN THOMAS???

[Prost1]

I am on the list.

Thanks,

[Prost1]

Anyone with a clever mind and funded time can develop many wonderful graphs.

Doesn't make them plausible, though. It begs an explanation for the varied colors of man, blacks in Austrialia and India, Negroes in central Africa, a different race in southern Africa, without mentioning the rest of the world.

[Prost1]

There is nothing nonsensical about recognizing that which can't be explored cannot be dismissed.

[ErnBatavia]

I came here for the Mike Tyson pics...(and, no, I'm not gay)

[Coyoteman]

It begs an explanation for the varied colors of man, blacks in Austrialia and India, Negroes in central Africa, a different race in southern Africa, without mentioning the rest of the world.

All of this is well understood. There are many excellent works on human races.

For example, if you had read one of these books you would know that Australoids are a distinct race, quite different from Negroids.

The dark skin is an adaptation to intense sunlight.

This distribution of skin color and its geographic patterning—with people whose ancestors lived predominantly near the equator having darker skin than those with ancestors who lived predominantly in higher latitudes—indicate that this attribute has been under strong selective pressure. Darker skin appears to be strongly selected for in equatorial regions to prevent sunburn, skin cancer, the photolysis of folate, and damage to sweat glands (Sturm et al. 2001; Rees 2003). Source

[miliantnutcase]

I think he looks more like a cro-mag than a Neanderthal. Neanderthals were very short and stocky. This guy's face is very wide and he's what, 7' at least?

[Prost1]

Tell me something I don't know...

[Clemenza]

Proof:

Chris Titus

Dr. House:

[HungarianGypsy]

I think we have more than sufficient evidence of Neanderthals among us. We see them everyday day, they're called Homo Libera ("Liberals" for the Laymen).

Hey! My husband is not a Liberal.

But he does look like a Neanderthal. A hot looking Neanderthal, though. ;-)

[Justa]

Well, Neanderthals were generally smaller than modern humans which would not explain Nikolai Valuev's physique. If his ancestors interbred with anything it'd was probably Gigantopithicus.

[TruthFactor]

The little guy almost won that fight.

The "little" guy is 6'2" and 235 lbs. Chew on that for a while.

[SunkenCiv]

Now you're just borrowing trouble. ;')

[SunkenCiv]

I mean, courting calamity.