Here we go again…it is the weekend and after all the politics and that damn boring wedding….I need these days of Zen…..flush the mind of the fecal matter it has accumulated over the week….and to thank my readers that braved the odds and visited my site as opposed to the wedding……speaking of cavemen! (how was that for a segway?)
First of all..I am NOT an anthropologist and my opinions are based on what may be a limited knowledge…….
For a couple years now my daughter and I have been having a running argument about our cave ancestors…..she was an anthropology major……as I understand it…..our original ancestor was located in Africa…you know what’s her name….Gilda……Bertha…..LUCY! (finally, that hurt trying to remember stuff like that)….anyway to continue….we as a species started in Africa and over the millennium we traveled up Africa around the Eastern end of the Mediterranean and across Europe until we made it to Southern France/Northern Spain…..where we then encountered Neanderthal….here is where we start a helluva argument……my take is if we were originally from Africa and did all that traveling…where did the Neanderthals come from?
Personally, I do not think that they were our ancestors and that they were a sub-species….maybe…..my daughter disagrees with me and we commence a yelling contest……where did the Neanderthals come from? Apparently not from Africa….so with that where did the Neanderthals originate?
I will bet that you, my reader, is sitting there scratching your head wondering what I am going on about…..right?
A new find!
Fossils of the bones of the young male and adult female suggests a controversial new species, that walked upright and shared many physical traits with the earliest known human Homo species.
Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand and his team discovered the skeletal remains of the two specimens they determined to be a new species of human. The two partial skeletons may belong to a previously unclassified species of pre-human dating back almost 2 million years and may shed new light on human evolution.
The finding of the pre-human, or hominid, fossils — which scientists say are between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old — was published in the journal Science and where believed to possibly answer some key questions about where humans came from.The skeletons had characteristics of previous species of Australopithecus, but also of Homo, leading the researchers to believe they may have found an evolutionary connection between the two, which evolved into a classic academic battle, with many believing there was no connection to Homo and that what they had discovered was really an ancestor of later Homo species.
they also discovered that the frontal lobe of this small brain contained organization more similar to that of humans, showing that contrary to what was previously thought, organization and brain size with human characteristics may not have been a simultaneous change. The pelvis of the A. sediba is what researchers believe show the strongest link toward the beginning of an evolutionary change to the Homo.
This just makes my argument with my daughter even more heated……I still say that the Neanderthals are NOT our direct ancestors…..so where did they come from?
For me, the most important point here is that We Can argue over how we got here. This world is a crazy place, it is full uncertainty. The more pressing issue today, ripe for argument, is “how much longer do we have to argue over the past as opposed to surviving the present. But, I’m sure you are already familiar with some of those arguments! Take care my friend.
So true, bwin…..the problem is there are so many different arguments that we cannot agree on hardly anything….we are doomed…..and we do not seem to care….sort of thinking….
no suggestion here that they may have evolved from apes and are that dreaded “missing linK” that today’s version of neanderthals refuse to accept?
Just a thought in the pile that accumulate around such considerations. 🙂
lb hoping you are having a good w/end…..my daughter and I seem to argue on stuff like this and we have no need to argue over dumb crap…..I still think that they are a sub-species…..I just enjoy changing my thinking on the w/ends…..thanx….
Interesting post. (MUCH better than bloody politics)…
There have, as far as can be discovered and as I understand it, well over half a dozen versions of “humans” – all belonging to the Family, Hominid. “Lucy” is I believe a version of Homo erectus (or maybe Australopithicus), a much earlier version and they still argue as to whether she is merely Hominid, or Genus Homo.
There are many explanations, but I’ve understood until now that, as far as we know, one version mostly did NOT develop from others, but from the original ape-like version. However, the various types mostly began huge periods of time apart. It is NOT as far as is known (in my understanding) some kind of “progression”, but similar species developing independently a long time apart and some (I think) probably concurrently. Some were more successful and some were not.
As far as we know, most if not all developed in Africa hundreds of thousands, some maybe millions of years apart. The Neanderthals made their way from their origin (I’ve always understood that to be Africa too, but maybe not) well before Homo sapiens sapiens (modern humans) appeared anywhere. At some point after modern humans developed, left Africa and then arrived in Europe where the majority of the Neanderthals remained, the Neanderthals disappeared from the scene.
There is no clear evidence (at this point in time and once again as far as I know) whether the Homo sapiens sapiens killed off the Neanderthals, interbred with them, or something else happened (like perhaps a virus – for instance – that killed Neanderthals and not modern humans).
One thing people do NOT generally understand is that there is every evidence that modern humans THEN were JUST as intelligent as they (we) are today – it’s simply that our communication, education and technology were all less sophisticated then than today, but our main advantage over the Neanderthals was that we were far more inventive and curious, so we BECAME more sophisticated.
Of course, Sarah Palin may dispute all this as, in her version of pre-history, it was probably the dinosaurs who killed off the Neanderthals… ya think?
I am not buying the whole everything began in Africa deal….the only remains that I know of for the neanderthals has been in Europe (I could be wrong)…..and the Cro-maggie bunch came up from Africa around the Mediterranean and the Neddies lost out in the competition thing for food because it was an ice age and food was sparse….that is my theory anyway……so where did the neddies come from if they were here when the cro-mags showed up?
I think it was the cross breeding of neddies and T-Rex that gives us the radical right…..Palin included……
I try not to be a “one trick pony”….always writing about the same thing……I feel variety is the spice of life ( a red head helps too)…..
Anything is possible of course (even I am not old enough to remember it) but the Neandertalls preceded modern humans by about a 200,000 or so years – they could perhaps be a variation of another “human” species that did come out of Africa much earlier, but specifically adapted for the cold of northern Europe. It is difficult to see how they would have lost out in the contest for food to modern humans who were nowhere near as strong and less well adapted to the climate, but hey! Like I said – even I’m not old enough to recall it… 😆
However, I think your theories about cross breeding lack some credibility, although therein lies one possible explanation for their demise – if Neaderthalls were responsible for Palin and cohorts (for instance), since they were fairly sensitive as far as can be estimated, they might all have committed mass suicide.
Neanderthals came from space by way of Atlantis. They built stonehenge and the Trump tower and then discovered Sri Lanka and the moon. They are the oldest secret society in history. The Da Vinci Code was loosely based on them….. Lol
You’re retarded.
I do live in Mississippi….LOL
Makes more sense than Africa…LOL
Is Mississippi not in Africa then?
According to, the geography books here…we are a colony of Africa…..
There you are then… Just accept it.
I’m sorry, Phillip, I don’t mean to be rude but that’s rubbish. If you had studied the prequel to Star Trek (actually, the prequel to the prequel), which hasn’t been written yet, you would know that the Vulcans, very early on in their development of warp drive and before they became all po-faced and lost their sense of humour, picked up all the Neanderthals from Africa and dumped them in cold northern Europe just for a laugh.
Sorry Quin….but I believe it was the Klingnons……heavy eyebrows….weird shaped craniums…..and it was dropped there as an exile….they have a sense of humor….LOL
Can’t have been – too early – definitely the Vulcans before they became such arrogant assholes…
How about the Andorians…..blue skin and such?
We-ell… po-ossibly… Neanderthals might have had blue skin, but I think that would have been because of the cold… Nah! I still think it’s the Vulcans picking ’em all up and dumping them in Europe.
But would the Vulcans waste time on those so inferior…at least in their minds?
Okay you’re just trying to make me mad! HUMANS EVOLVED IN AFRICA. It happened. Accept it! (you’re not being racist are you? Lol) I’m bringing my books to dinner tomorrow to discuss this properly!
Then where are the neddies artifacts on their way to Europe….there are cro-mags…where is the neddie?
The Neddies don’t exist anymore, so who cares? YOUR ancestors came out of Africa (and mine too – but probably later since our family has always been late doing everything)!
Knuckle dragging neddies? Ever been to a Tea Party event? They LIVE!
No, you’re wrong. The Neanderthals were NOT that stupid.