My last day of mental cleansing, similar to a colon cleansing, but different…….and my post form yesterday kinda goes in hand with today’s offering……..
I have said that I really enjoy the sciencey stuff…especially when I can throw it the face of someone……
My daughter and I have been arguing for years about the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnon…..i say that they were a sub-species and she says that they are related and the cros killed them off through competition for the limited resources of the time ………she was training to be a forensic anthropologist at the time and we would almost come to blows in the arguments……FYI, we are still having the argument………
But what did kill the Neds? Was it the competition that my daughter believes or what? Well now i have a bit more ammunition for our next title bout……..
(Newser) – So we didn’t kill off the Neanderthals after all. That’s the conclusion of researchers who analyzed Neanderthal-bone DNA and deduced that most of them died off in Western Europe during the Ice Age, long before encountering modern humans. A small Neanderthal group lived on for about 10,000 more years after the near-extinction of their race around 50,000 years ago, the BBC reports.
“The fact that Neanderthals in Europe were nearly extinct, but then recovered, and that all this took place long before they came into contact with modern humans, came as a complete surprise,” says the study’s lead author. Their proof: Neanderthal DNA variation dropped off around the Ice Age, implying that survivors existed in a smaller group. Modern humans from the east were better able to handle the cold, the Daily Mail notes—but may not have survived if Neanderthals had also coped with the Ice Age.
It should be an interesting battle royal at the next meeting of the twisted minds society……
Uh, uh. Not going to drag me into a family squabble. Not over some ancient knuckle draggers. 🙂
We have the modern day version to contend with. Besides, most of them believe an Ice Age is coming rather than the global warming that’s apparent.
Larry…well said…and as you can imagine the caribou is her….I do so enjoy our arguments…tee hee….
Boy, Larry, you like to use every issue to attack conservatives, don’t you?
I think the Neanderthals and Cro-Mags were screwing each other quite frequently. After all, it wasn’t a sin, because the 10 Commandments hadn’t been invented yet. And yes, you do occasionally run into a Neanderthal descendant now and then; difficult people to deal with.
But hansi…..the neds were butt ugly…surely there were some sort of standards even with cave men….
here we go again…i think it is a bit ridiculous to assume that there was no interbreeding between modern humans and neandertals. the dna evidence is there. there is an entire project devoted to mapping the neandertal genome and can be found here: http://www.eva.mpg.de/neandertal/index.html.
they have found some very compelling evidence in favor of interbreeding.
dinner better be good today, is all i’m sayin!
in case there is any confusion this is the daughter I speak of…….I will check out the link….but watch for next week….it is a doosey…
The genetic contribution to the human gene pool from neanderthals seems to have been very limited, to the point where it is very questionable to use it to suggest that humans and neanderthals were engaging in extensive interbreeding.
Thanx for the visit Adam……and I am not a trained anthropologist…..but I have my doubts about the neds/Cros thing….please visit again…it will prove interesting yet again….
I’ll keep an eye on how things go.
But anyway, there was some definite interbreeding, it just appears to have been very limited. I did here one person suggest that it would only have required one…couple.
Lobotero,
Genetic evidence suggests that Neanderthals bred with modern humans.
Where does this information fit in to your argument? To me, it suggests Neanderthals were a sub-species that didn’t die off, but sort of disappeared through interbreeding. It’s known as, I believe, the absorption or interbreeding theory.
Terrance, my argument with my daughter is that modern man started in Africa (latest theory that is) and moved their way to Europe and beyond…..but yet Cros encountered neds in southern Europe….to me that means that they were a separate species….why else would they be somewhere that the others finally arrive….I believe that there is some evidence that they interbred but I do not think it was a massive as some think…..but like i said…i am No anthropologist just a theory from my past readings…..