Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: blam
One theory why modern humans, especially Europeans, Caucasians, etc., have problems with wisdom teeth is that we have inherited the small jaws of non-Neanderthals, but the numerous teeth which were able to fit in larger Neanderthal jaws.

That's one theory anyway.

I have known people who did not have wisdom teeth: their teeth fit perfectly in their jaws, no need for extractions. I have also known people who not only had to have all four wisdom teeth removed, but who also had an extra set of four wisdom teeth behind those which had to be removed, and in one case, a third upper pair of half-formed wisdom teeth which the dentists did not touch because they were too close to the sinuses.

Tracing DNA material down the female line does not necessarily prove anything definitively, contrary to what scientific spin doctors tell you. The bulk of the population of Europe, for instance, can be traced directly back to a small number of female ancestors, according to some testing done recently, but that does not mean that only those limited number of female ancestors were the only female ancestors of today's population, since indirect female inheritance is not studied; other females with Neanderthal inheritance may have existed, who did not leave direct ancestors of their own, but who might have introduced Neanderthal genes into the non-Neanderthal population. In other words, it is not necessary to speculate exclusively about Neanderthal men impregnating non-Neanderthal woman, when the reverse could also have happened just as often; even if these Neanderthal women do not have direct female ancestors in today's population, they could have passed along, indirectly, some of their genetic inheritence to non-Neanderthal women who did, eventually, pass along these genes to today's populations.

Also, we still don't know a lot about DNA, and there is a good chance a lot gets passed along which cannot be traced with our current technology and current limited understanding of DNA.

Well, that's my take; others much more knowledgeable about DNA can debate this point.

The important point for me here is there is more indication that the neanderthals were not stupid; the idea they did not have a spoken language, for instance, will have to be dropped: you need a language to pass along the kind of knowledge to make these glues (not to mention the other evidence for organization requiring language which is already well known). The association of stupidity and primitiveness with neanderthals is a result of an unfortunate misunderstanding of the original fossils, which were misshapen.

42 posted on 01/06/2002 4:54:50 PM PST by Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
Thanks. I agree 100% with all that you said in your post.
43 posted on 01/06/2002 5:14:39 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies ]

To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
Supposedely, there was an ice age type event about 80,000 years ago that drove homo sapiens population worlwide down to only a few thousand individuals.
71 posted on 12/02/2003 4:34:12 PM PST by djf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson