Posted on 05/08/2006 11:29:20 AM PDT by blam
Neanderthals and Humans: Perhaps They Never Met
By Robin Lloyd
Special to LiveScience
posted: 08 May 2006
The number of years that modern humans are thought to have overlapped with Neanderthals in Europe is shrinking fast, and some scientists now say that figure could drop to zero.
Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia from 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, petering out soon after the arrival of modern humans from Africa.
There is much debate on exactly how Neanderthals went extinct. Theories include climate change and inferior tools compared to those made by modern humans. Anthropologists also disagree on whether modern humans and Neanderthals are the same species and interbred.
And now, some scientists dispute whether they lived side-by-side at all in Europe.
Timeline of Human Evolution
The timeline of human evolution is long and controversial, with significant gaps. Experts do not agree on many of the start and end points of various species. So this chart involves significant estimates.
Zero overlap?
The overlap figure shrank in February with new research by Paul Mellars of Cambridge University based on improved carbon-14 dating to show that modern humans started encroaching from Israel upon Neanderthal territory in the Balkans 3,000 years sooner than previously thought. This rate suggests Neanderthals succumbed sooner to big climate shifts or competition from modern humans for resources and that they might have overlapped for only 1,000 years at sites in western France.
Try zero years, says anthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Were Neanderthals human or not?
...(shudder).. they bred!
I'll go make popcorn.
Yes, they all turned into Muslims.
Had one as my lawyer.
My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know - when a man like my client slips and falls on a sidewalk in front of a public library, then he is entitled to no less than two million in compensatory damages, and two million in punitive damages.
Sub species: Homo Sapiens Neanderthalis
There are plenty of folk-tales and legends about the old people in Europe. Some of these could be about the neanderthals, although 25,000 years would put it way back in oral tradition.
I was looking for a yes or no answer.
misc ping! :)
Humans are Homo Sapiens Sapiens...
so... No.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! When I see my image on the security camera at the country club, I wonder, are they stealing my soul? I get so upset, I hop out of my Range Rover, and run across the fairway to the clubhouse, where I get Carlos to make me one of those martinis he's so famous for, to soothe my primitive caveman brain. But whatever world you're from, I do know one thing: in the 20 years from March 22, 1972, when he first ordered that extra nicotine be put into his product, until February 25, 1992, when he issued an interoffice memorandum stopping the addition of that nicotine, my client was legally insane."
We know.
Neanderthals still exist. Many of them vote Democrat every single election cycle. Their primative brains prevent them doing anything otherwise.
Too much roast duck with mango salsa.
It's possible.
I read where one anthropologist says that Gigantopithicus (large extinct ape) is the source of our legends/myth of 'boogey men.' The youngest Gigantopithicus skeleton ever found is 600,000 years old.
That was a cheap lunch.....Only one of them ordered the roast duck with the mango salsa.
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