[exmarine]

Oh, c'mon, if everybody had proper occlusions orthodontists would be out of work! (My uncle is an orthodontist, my dad a dentist, and they just couldn't keep from messing with my occlusion. It's a wonder I have teeth left.)

Problem was that the occlusions were ALL WAY OFF. That is a problem. They also used "filler" material to fill in gaps in order to accomplish their deceit. The conclusion: Neanderthals were humans who lived to extreme ages (300-400 years), and that is why they have the dense bones and protruding brows, etc. Facial bones keep growing throughout life and the other bones become denser. It's a more believable explanation than Neanderthals weren't human. They were human. DNA difference means very little because human DNA can change and still be human. There are so many false conclusions drawn on Neanderthals, they are difficult to even count, and the point is that the conclusions are INFERENCES based upon worldview presuppositions, not confirmed scientific facts.

[Physicist]

If you're going to go down the road of "ALL the evidence is deliberately faked", you can rationalize anything under the sun, up to and including the innocence of O.J. Simpson.

Denial of evidence makes for a shifting sand upon which to build one's faith, however.

[CobaltBlue]

>>DNA difference means very little because human DNA can change and still be human.<<

There are two kinds of DNA, nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA. Researchers study mitochondrial DNA, usually, not nuclear DNA, although I am not sure why. Mitochondrial DNA is passed on from your mother only, while nuclear DNA is a combination from your mother and father - they actually call it recombination, again I am not sure why "recombination" is better than "combination." Mitochondrial DNA is not recombined so remains stable over very long periods of time.

At any rate, mitochondrial DNA of both human skeletons and Neanderthal skeletons have been studied, and researchers are sure that there are no known Neanderthal female ancestors of any known human.

Maybe there are Neanderthal male ancestors, just not female.