Posted on 08/19/2007 5:45:36 PM PDT by blam
Source: University of California, Davis
Date: August 16, 2007
Handsome By Chance: Why Humans Look Different From Neanderthals
Science Daily — Chance, not natural selection, best explains why the modern human skull looks so different from that of its Neanderthal relative, according to a new study led by Tim Weaver, assistant professor of anthropology at UC Davis.
Model of the Neanderthal man. Exhibited in the Dinosaur Park Münchehagen, Germany. (Credit: iStockphoto/Klaus Nilkens)
"For 150 years, scientists have tried to decipher why Neanderthal skulls are different from those of modern humans," Weaver said. "Most accounts have emphasized natural selection and the possible adaptive value of either Neanderthal or modern human traits. We show that instead, random changes over the past 500,000 years or so – since Neanderthals and modern humans became isolated from each other – are the best explanation for these differences."
Weaver and his colleagues compared cranial measurements of 2,524 modern human skulls and 20 Neanderthal specimens, then contrasted those results with genetic information from a separate sample of 1,056 modern humans.
The scientists concluded that Neanderthals did not develop their protruding mid-faces as an adaptation to icy Pleistocene weather or the demands of using teeth as tools, and the retracted faces of modern humans are not an adaptation for language, as some anthropologists have proposed.
Instead, random "genetic drift" is the likeliest reason for these skull differences.
Weaver conducted the research with Charles Roseman, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of California, Davis.
Who besides Helen Tomas is old enough to have seen these monkeys?
File this under “one guess is as good as another”.
Does it have somethng to do with Government Employees and car insurance?
There is no physical evidence for long hair, on the head or the face. That is an artist imagination at work. Take away the hair, and the resemblance is even closer!
Why would you think they had short hair?
Which is why humans started adorning themselves with the furs of animals and the feathers of birds.
And why cats don’t need to wear lipstck.
Why would you think they had long hair, for beards?
Cuz they were primitive creatures and like lots of primitive people I know, or knew in college, they weren’t all that keen on grooming and such.
Now why do you think they had short hair?
Yes - it might even look like...like...a modern man! Yahoo!
Speak for yourself.
And try soap, deodorant and plastic surgery if it's so offensive.
I think there is no way to know one way or the other. It is strictly artistic license, there is no scientific evidence. Just like there is no evidence that there bodies were covered with long hair, as they are often depicted.
You’ve been hanging out with the Houynyms too long...
LOL!
At least my post was serious, and made an attempt to address the article.
Your "LOL!" was neither.
If you disagree, let's hear all about it.
I was just trying to be funny.
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer'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]
by James Shreeve
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