Neanderthals Clever Enough To Make 'Superglue'

Ananova ^ | 0106-2002

[blam]

Neanderthals clever enough to make 'superglue'

Researchers say Neanderthals had considerable technical and intellectual skills and were as ingenious as modern humans.

German scientists say they have found Neanderthals mixed a kind of superglue to make tools.

It had to be made at a precise temperature and means the race had considerable technical and manual skills in comparison to their dullard image.

Neanderthals are thought to have first appeared around 230,000 to 300,000 years ago.

Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said the discovery is potentially very important: "It would further show that the behaviour gap between us and Neanderthals is narrower than we thought. Some may say there isn't a gap."

Independent reports that the research centres on a new analysis of two 80,000-year-old samples of blackish-brown pitch discovered in a lignite mining pit in the Harz mountains in Germany.

One of the pitch pieces bears the print of a finger and there are also imprints of a flint stone tool and wood, suggesting the pitch had served as a sort of glue to secure a wooden shaft to a flint stone blade.

The research, carried out at the Doerner-Institut in Munich, found the pitch was a birch pitch, which can be only be produced at temperatures of 300-400C.

The team, led by Professor Dietrich Mania of Freidrich-Schiller University in Jena, said: "This implies the Neanderthals did not come across these pitches by accident but must have produced them with intent."

"The pitch finds demonstrate that the Neanderthals must have possessed a high degree of technical and manual abilities, comparable to those of modern Homo sapiens.''

Story filed: 12:45 Sunday 6th January 2002

[blam]

Our Of Africa (Toba Explosion)

[Nakota]

Makes no difference, Ted Kennedy still won't allow them on the Supreme Court!

[djf]

Looks Irish. Must be why I have that weakness for the lasses, part babe, part beast. Every one!!

[Burkeman1]

Interesting post. I have no expertise in this area but I like to follow these threads. That post is in keeping of what I was taught in high school and college 15 years ago- that neandethals were just an earlier race of modern humans that emigrated out of Africa before others did.

[blam]

This discovery may/will re-write the history books.

Stranger In A New Land (Archaeology)

[null and void]

You as a young lady?

[blam]

Study Hits Suggestion That Neanderthals Could Talk

[GreenHornet]

While it has been proven that Neanderthals invented the "Veg-A-Matic", there is no conclusive proof that they EVER made julian fries!!!

Crinkle cut yes, julian no.

Maybe so, but they could still slice a tomato paper-thin!

[djf]

Considering some of the results lately with gray parrots, we may have to abandon any standard accepted ideas about cognition and brain size/structure.

I don't know how confirmed the story is, but Alex is quoted as saying to his owner (when she left him at the vet):

"Come back! I love you! I'm sorry. I want to go back."

This story, if true, is absolutely fantastic. Four statements. Each directly related to the situation at hand. Emotional in content.

About as far from naked stimulus-response as you can get.

[mrobison]

That's Chelsea Clinton!

[null and void]

Nope. Chelsea's full blooded, you can see it in the frog like mouth...

[BradyLS]

There has been progress in the past 300,000 years: the modern perforated axe head has overcome some of the problem, but axe heads still sometimes fly off the stick.

And here I thought the damn things were just cheap!

[sonofatpatcher2]

Re: Neanderthals were violently wiped out by early Cro Magnum man or in limited cases inbred with them.

I think you meant to say "interbred."

tee-hee.

Are you implying they made the beast with two backs? Or baked bread together?

[BradyLS]

Back to our first human, she sure is cuddly. She is much more desirable than her standoffish hairy sisters. Rather than the annual fertility cycle, she is 'in heat' all of the time. Cuddly and friendly too!

"That *itch!" her hairy girlfriends were quoted as saying...

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

There are so many great opportunities for either high-brow or Neanderthal-level humor, doncha know?! ;-)

[Aracelis]

Close...especially the eyes. Her hair isn't red enough though. ;^)

[Aracelis]

Thanks for the ping, Junior. Neanderthals went somewhere, and we have yet to find mass graves indicating that they were victims of genocide. My bet is with the hybrid hypothesis.

[Yeti]

Interesting hypothesis, null, but I'm not sure there was a one first human. The changes you mentioned more likely occured not suddenly in one individual, but gradually, over many generations. Also, I think some of those features you mentioned are controlled by nuclear DNA, rather than mitochondrial DNA.

It's possible, though, that the first human was a woman.

[John O]

I happen to have a vegomatic with the original box and instructions. Still use it to make cottage fries. Cuts them exactly the way my grandma did. (I also have a spare one in the garage)

[night reader]

I am of the belief that Neanderthals were violently wiped out by early Cro Magnum man or in limited cases inbred with them.

Nothing that dramatic. Their women were too ugly for the race to survive once the good lookers started showing up!