If neanderthals were aware of beauty, it is not surpising that they outbred their unattractive traits through the years. Bred their way into us?? No way. Studies of neanderthal DNA indicate that it was about halfway between ours and that of a chimpanzee, clearly explaining why there was never any evidence of interbreeding. We could no more interbreed with them than we could with horses and, further, all scientists agree, there is no way we are descended from them.
That presents yet another insoluble problem for evolutionists: to believe that modern man evolved, there would have to be some closer hominid, i.e. some hominid between us and the neanderthal which we COULD have descended from and, since this closer hominid would be closer to us both in time and morphology than the neanderthal, his works and remains should be very easy to find; they should be all over the place. Neanderthal works and remains are all over the place. Neanderthal was the major inhabitant of this planet just prior to us. Here's one of Jay Matternes' modern reconstructions(not based on diseased specimens) of what they looked like:
Not really all that bad looking. Not one of us, but a thoroughly modern man despite the DNA difference.
Dress him in jeans and a T-shirt and put him on the #7 train and no one would blink and eye.
FYI......(From Science News Magazine)
Fossil may expose humanity's hybrid roots.(discovery of 24,500-year-old skeleton in Portugal's Lapedo Valley may be hybrid of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens)(Brief Article)
Author/s: B. Bower
Issue: May 8, 1999
Last Nov. 28, archaeologists working in Portugal's Lapedo Valley, 90 miles north of Lisbon, chanced upon a child's burial. At first the researchers, led by Joao Zilhao of the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology in Lisbon, viewed the 24,500-year-old skeleton as an example of modern Homo sapiens.
The shallow grave resembled other Late Stone Age human burials in Europe. A seashell lay among the child's bones, which bore the stains of an intentionally applied red pigment. By the time excavation of the skeleton concluded on Jan. 7, however, the scientists suspected that their find represented something far more interesting--an anatomical hybrid that could only have appeared so late as a result of extensive prior interbreeding between humans and Neandertals. H. sapiens and Neandertals both inhabited southwestern Europe for at least several thousand years, until around 30,000 years ago.
The Portuguese team called in an authority on Neandertals, Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis, to examine the find. He agreed that they had uncovered a hybrid kid. Zilhao announced the discovery at a press conference in Lisbon 2 weeks ago. Trinkaus described the skeleton last week in Columbus, Ohio, at the annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society. A full description of the new fossil will appear in PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. "This kid surprised us," Trinkaus says. "The mosaic of anatomical features tells us that when Neandertals and modern humans met, they regularly interbred."
Some researchers at the Columbus meeting who saw slides of the new specimen echoed Trinkaus' view. Others argued either that any interbreeding was minimal or that the fossil merely represents a stocky modern human.
Much of the child's skull was crushed, although the scientists recovered brain-case pieces and the lower jaw and teeth. The rest of the skeleton was largely intact. Tooth development places the child's age at between 3 1/2 and 5 years, Trinkaus notes. Radiocarbon analyses yielded the burial's estimated age.
Modern human traits observed on the skeleton include a well-formed chin and relatively small lower arms. But the huge "snowplow" jaw, large front teeth, short legs, and broad chest betray a Neandertal heritage, Trinkaus says.
The prehistoric child did not belong to a group of modern humans who may have evolved squat bodies suited to Ice Age conditions, he asserts. Southwestern Europe did not get cold enough to instigate such changes, in his opinion.
Trinkaus suggests that Neandertals and modern humans interbred as closely related members of the same species, as some subspecies of baboons and other animals interbreed today.
Scientists who argue that modern humanity arose simultaneously in two or more parts of the world over at least the past 1 million years support Trinkaus' interpretation. "The Portuguese find indicates that one anatomically variable human species inhabited western Europe," contends Milford H. Wolpoff of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "Human populations have always interbred."
Bred their way into us?? No way. Studies of neanderthal DNA indicate that it was about halfway between ours and that of a chimpanzee, clearly explaining why there was never any evidence of interbreeding. We could no more interbreed with them than we could with horses and, further, all scientists agree, there is no way we are descended from them.Actually, my understanding of this debate is that this is still under some dispute. There are a few people who claim that the Neanderthal population was absorbed into ours. I personally doubt it. I tend to agree with you.
Life would be radically different today if the Neanderthals had made it to the present time. There's a very good book out there called Extinct Humans about the evolution of our species. It points out that speaking in terms of evolution, there have been many different homo sapien-like lines that evolved. All for one reason or the other went by the wayside. Very interesting book that changed my whole perspective."we are alone in the universe" bunk would've never even developed. Since they didn't make it, probably due to our ancestor's crowding them out, we now live in a world where nuts such as Mr. bin Laden think they're God's gifts to the universe........