I am proud to be a Neanderthal decendent http://www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...anky-panky-between-various-pre-humans-n541011 http://arstechnica.com/science/2016...-sex-with-neanderthals-over-100000-years-ago/
When the first modern humans (Homo sapiens) arrived in Europe--the Cro-Magnon, named after the region in which their remains and artifacts were first discovered--the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) had already populated the continent. The world had been in an ice age for millennia, and this is the climate best suited for Neanderthals. They were large and strong, good attributes for chasing the large but relatively slow-moving prey animals of the era, such as mammoths and bison. They were not buoyant, which was fine since Europe's rivers were frozen over most of the time. The musculature in their arms could not operate a bow and arrow, which was okay because their prey didn't run. But around 20KYA the earth's climate changed in response to a warming trend. New, smaller, more nimble animals migrated in from Asia. The rivers melted, making fish available to anyone who could catch it. Most importantly, the first wave of Homo sapiens migrated into the continent, which was now more hospitable to the lighter, faster species. We have little evidence of the kind of interaction that occurred when the two species of humans met, but the DNA in Europeans descended from this first wave of sapiens (rather than the people who came later: Celtic, Italic, Germanic; and even later the Slavs, Magyars, Finns; and still later the Semitic Jews and Arabs) shows clear evidence of hybridization with Neanderthals. It's reasonable to guess that every sapiens community might have appreciated having a few Neanderthals among them to do the heavy lifting, or to go out hunting in winter. There were Neanderthals all over the northern regions of Asia too, but they didn't have the population density of Europe. We don't have enough evidence to estimate the rate of intermarriage there--if any.
It's safe to assume though that the rate was above 0. 2-5% Neanderthal DNA in ours, and at least one skeleton of a second generation crossbreed (word?) was found (One neanderthal grand parent). I find the latter very interesting, because it tells these were not outcasts, but crossbreeds found partners again, to have children with. This makes me wonder. Any creature with sufficiently strong arms and fingers should be able to use a bow? Neanderthals sure could lift their elbows to shoulder height and perform a pull on the string? It makes me wonder twice, since some high power bows were operated while sitting, the bow fastened to ones feet and pulling the string with both arms. Very unwieldly, but these were the armor breaching bows before crossbows, and apparently used in the middle east for a while. Can't find an online source though, and forgot the name of this type of bow. Is there a source which explains why the neanderthals could not use bows?
This is something I read 20 years ago, so I don't remember the source. The point was that the Neanderthal arm doesn't have the range of motion of ours. They wouldn't have been able to pull the arrow back far enough to store the necessary force in the bowstring. Their arrows would have had insufficient speed and power. Remember that in Ice Age Europe, the prey animals were huge, an evolutionary strategy for conserving body heat. It would take a rather powerful archer to puncture their thick, wool-covered, leathery hide with an arrow. It was more effective to attack them close-up with spears.
I think it a mistake to assume that all neanderthals are well represented by the remnant western european survivors of the 70kyr die-off/bottleneck. There is strong evidence that the (earlier?) eastern neanderthals were more gracile than the western european survivors.
Intermarriage is unlikely to have occurred. Interbreeding did - as it always does. When a more aggressive and better-armed [sic] tribe overpowers a vulnerable population, they don't kill the females - at least, not right away. It's amusing to note that nowadays, it's fashionable to claim Neanderthal ancestry - presumably for their large brain size. When I was young, "Neanderthal!" was the mortal insult to one's intelligence. It was generally assumed that H. sapiens won out through cleverness, so that's how we all identified. (Of course, in my youth, the wheel was still a novelty.)
I posted is not that is fashionable . I always believed that is a nomade existed for over 400000 years he would spread his seed in many parts of the world . There is noreaseo not to believe that he crossed the Gibraltar strait and left his seed in in north Africa , Same way with new information we seed he populated asia also . I believe what happen 25 or 30 years ago is that we did not have much information from Asia and in the Eastern part of the grand Siberia Now the new government in those regions allows exploration and so we get more information,
Because he is a nomade of course. With no data or evidence I speculate we would have hunted and fed upon poor old neandethal. I speculate we captured a few and that may explain any breeding. They and us were so different so hunting them for food or sport does not seem unreasonable. If they were around today how would we treat them.
Alternately, we needed some of the neanderthal dna to survive out of Africa. Perhaps, those who migrated the southern route got a boost from denisovan dna, (speculation---adaptation to high altitudes)
From the link in the OP I can't see how they can tell from DNA that prehistoric people used handkerchiefs and wore pants.
I recall reading research presenting a hypothisis that we can thank the humble dog for our ability to speak. Owning dogs gave us wonderful advantage over neandethal. The part of our brain used for sniffing prey was released to make room for speech function whereas the neandethal without a dog had to do his own sniffing and therefore no room for speech.
Who among us has Neanderthal, Denisovan DNA? http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30247-0 http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/03/28/who-among-us-has-neanderthal-denisovan-dna.html
Recent examination of Neanderthal skulls, using modern instruments, has shown that their brain had a speech center very similar to our own. It's very likely that their language ability wasn't much different from our own. That said, many anthropologists suggest that spoken language was an artifact of our own species, and was developed about 70,000 years ago. This is when the archeological record begins to show us evidence of highly complicated, coordinated activities performed in groups, that could not possibly be performed with one hand, as the other was busy communicating in sign language. We can tell rather precisely when clothing was invented. Body lice speciated from head lice about that same time, 70KYA. Prior to that time, the head louse was the only species
Humans from Africa spread nasty diseases to the Eurasia-based Neanderthals, a new report has found. A surprising new study has found that humans migrating out of Africa may have spread a number of nasty diseases to Neanderthals in Europe and Asia. Researchers at Cambridge and Oxford Brookes believes that early humans spread genital herpes, tuberculosis, tapeworm, and a host of other diseases to their Neanderthal cousins some 50,000 years ago, according to a University of Cambridge statement. Unfortunately for the Neanderthals, they had no natural immunity for these diseases, and it may have even resulted in their extinction 40,000 years ago. The Neanderthals in Eurasia would not have been adapted to the tropical diseases the human body had learned to endure, and would have been quite susceptible to these diseases. And it probably wasn’t any one disease that did them in: researchers think that individual bands of Neanderthals were wiped out by their own individual infection disasters, which may have varied depending on the group. “Humans migrating out of Africa would have been a significant reservoir of tropical diseases,” Dr. Charlotte Houldcroft, from Cambridge’s Division of Biological Anthropology, said in the statement. “For the Neanderthal population of Eurasia, adapted to that geographical infectious disease environment, exposure to new pathogens carried out of Africa may have been catastrophic. “However, it is unlikely to have been similar to Columbus bringing disease into America and decimating native populations. It’s more likely that small bands of Neanderthals each had their own infection disasters, weakening the group and tipping the balance against survival,” she added. “We are beginning to see evidence that environmental bacteria were the likely ancestors of many pathogens that caused disease during the advent of agriculture, and that they initially passed from humans into their animals.”
Mod Note 6 off topic posts moved to appropriate thread that had just been closed and which the user in question attempted to flame and troll this thread with 'race' propaganda by dragging it into this thread after the other thread was closed. 1 infraction issued for attempting to bypass moderation by dragging things from a thread just closed, to try to flame and troll this thread.
