[SeekAndFind]

Also here :

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100506-science-neanderthals-humans-mated-interbred-dna-gene/

“Neanderthals, Humans Interbred—First Solid DNA Evidence; Most of us have some Neanderthal genes, study finds.”

[highlander_UW]

...Dr. Svante Pääbo, a pioneer in paleogenetics, a field that employs genome science to study early humans and other Paleolithic-era creatures.

Science so simple a caveman can do it.

You just knew someone was going to have to write it...so just be happy it's out of the way.

[wendy1946]

I’m sorry, but that’s just BS. Neanderthal DNA is generally described as being about halfway between ours and that of a chimpanzee, meaning that they were s species difference from us and not a racial difference. Aside from everything else that explains the previously enigmatic lack of any evidence of crossbreeding despite the two groups having lived in close proximity long enough that there should have been a lot of it; we could no more interbreed with neanderthals than we could with horses or cows.

[Repeal The 17th]

Where’s that image of the reconstruction of a juvenile neanderthal?

[irishtenor]

I see them on those insurance commercials all the time. They don’t look much different than us, although they are pretty sensitive about it.

[Da Coyote]

MISPRINT ALERT:

Should have read “...hardly different from modern liberals...”

[Grig]

So, in other words, Neanderthals are just some bad looking humans, not part of some evolutionary chain. Except perhaps the evolution of grooming.

[aruanan]

Although we are both hominids, the fossil record told us long ago that we differ physically from Neanderthals, in various ways.

Such as interpreting damage caused by arthritis in a way to make Neanderthals seem phenotypically very different from modern humans. Or the incident where the C1 of a Neanderthal skeleton was rotated 180 degrees so the head would be thrust forward and down to make Neanderthals look less upright (and human) than Cro-Magnon.

[MWestMom]

Anyone who knew my ex could have told you there was Neanderthal in some of us.

[Fractal Trader]

Yet more Neanderthal!

[redhead]

I'm reading this. It's written in layman's terms, and is very informative and interesting.

[wolfman23601]

Neanderthals never became extinct. They became the Scots!

[Pharmboy]

And how much do Neanderthals, in turn, have in common with the ape-ancestors from which we are both descended, the chimpanzees?

Nonsense. We descended from a common ancestor, we did NOT descend FROM chimps. I'm surprised that Science would have missed that...

[Dustbunny]

So does this mean that Jean M. Auel was 20 years ahead of the current scientific findings?

I have always thought that they interbred and had to have been close genetically or they would have produced mules. Also have always thought that children born with Downs Syndrome are a throw back to the Neanderthal.

[Beowulf9]

Except they didn’t pay taxes and hate Obama.

[Ditto]

And how much do Neanderthals, in turn, have in common with the ape-ancestors from which we are both descended, the chimpanzees?

Huh? I understood the theory was that humans, eariler humanoids, chimps and other apes all evolved from a common ancestor, not that humans evolved from chimps or any of the apes directly. They may be very distant 'cousins' but they are not direct ancestors.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

As I recall Neanderthal had an average brain size larger than H. Sapien. I also recall that there was a creature called Boskop Man from South Africa whose brain size was larger that H. Sapien on the average. It appears that we perhaps aren’t the best of the breed after all if mental acuity is the measure.

[MortMan]

Has anyone ever seen Obozo and the Geico caveman together?!?

There’s your proof right there!