[blam]

GGG Ping.

[EequalsMC2]

LOL! What is the commercial with the Neanderthals? "We thought you were extinct?" So, they are in a restaurant, and one orders duck with orange sauce, the other lost his appetite?

See what is wrong with good commercials..I forgot the product!

[Yo-Yo]

The disappearance of Neanderthals is frequently attributed to competition from modern humans, whose greater intelligence has been widely supposed to make them more efficient as hunters.

"Next time maybe do a little research."

[taxesareforever]

New Study Reveals Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans

All you need to do is compare photos of John Kerry in hunting garb with them. No question about it.

[tgusa]

Makes sense. My wife says I'm a Neanderthal, and I'm a pretty good hunter.

[GSlob]

Far from having disappeared, the Neanderthals are still with and among us even to this very day. Particularly high concentrations could be found in many places, including death rows, criminal gangs and MSM.

[jonno]

Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans

Why are creationists not even a little surprised?
(and amused 8^)

[pissant]

I'm guessing the early humans hunted and ate the neanderthals to extinction. A little chewy though, I'm sure. ;o)

[Red Badger]

....and they're really good at playing football, just check the playoffs!...........

[Termite_Commander]

Neanderthals preferred close-quarters combat with their prey, using spears to stab at vital parts of an animal to bring it down, while Homo sapiens were thought to use throwing spears instead.

To each his own. Neanderthals were more heavily built, so they could have handled grappling with big critters better than homo sapiens could, so they might be able to bring down bigger prey. But then, since H. sapiens prefers ranged hunting (with throwing spears and the like), they would be able to sneak up on their quarry and hit them in a stealthy fashion. In a situation where they are hunting a herd of animals, this might hold some advantages, since a group of hunters could each focus on his own target, as opposed to the Neanderthal technique of attacking a single animal at close range in a coordinated group. Homo sapiens might score more food for their effort.

Or, they could toss their spears, miss, or only slightly wound their target, and then get mauled by whatever they were hunting. Since H. sapiens were better at long-range attacks, they were not as skilled as a Neanderthal would be when faced with an angry, charging animal. Plus, they would have already tossed their weapon, meaning they had better have an extra in reserve.

There are pros and cons for both species. Until we build ourselves a time machine, we'll just have to guess which method was more effective. Or maybe, as this article states, their hunting success was roughly equal, despite their different methods.

[RadioAstronomer]

I bought at auction an actual (not a replica) authenticated Neanderthal knife dated to about 60,000 years ago.

It's a pretty amzing feeling to hold an object created by a hominid long before any written history.

[mtbopfuyn]

New Study Reveals Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans

And why shouldn't they have been just as good at hunting? Every time scientists don't know something they automatically strike it down to that species' inferiority.

[Grut]

Why the easy assumption that Neanderthals were less intelligent than our ancestors? After all, their brains were 10-15% larger than ours. My theory is that Neanderthal was smarter than us and as a result spent his time discussing Cantorean transfinites and organizing chamber music societies rather than getting down to inventing agriculture and domesticating critters and all that hick stuff.

I further theorize that when he finally noticed the neighborhood was getting crowded with all the wrong types, Neanderthal invented Flying Saucers and left. Still checks back in now and again, of course. ;^)

[kinghorse]

But their table manners were left wanting. So they fell by the wayside. Actually they probably fell by the wayside because another tribe of humans tired of their animalistic and barbaric antics. Kind of the same reason people originally marched out of Africa 200 million years ago or whatever the timeline is. Tired of the neighborhood.

[NoClones]

wonder if anyone has ever considered that it may have been disease that wiped out neanderthals?

[seppel]

yawn. eventually even sientists will figure out that man has not fundamentally changed through the ages. christians and jews have known this for millenia.

[r9etb]

If neanderthals and modern humans coexisted, the likely explanation is that the latter killed off the former. Wonder why that explanation gets avoided in articles like this?

[Mike Darancette]

They must have done OK. They were in Europe longer than us guys were.

[MarkL]

Gee, I can't imagine why! A Neanderthal who couldn't hunt would be a Neanderthal who starved.

Mark

[SunkenCiv]

Oh, no, is it time for 'Civ to trot this out again?!?

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve

Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]