Could our big brains come from Neanderthals?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Clan of the Cave Bear.

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

I have read a recent study showing that they did have the ability for speech.

Speech is a long way from full fledged language. Do you have a link to the study's findings?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Full fledged language, or for that matter speech, isn't necessary to communicate. We're talking cave men here.
I don't think a bottle of wine and witty banter was the key to procreating. We can't assume they didn't pass genes just because they couldn't tell you to squeal like a pig.

[wolf]

Somebody's been watching too many GEICO commercials.

[Tonchi]

OK, glad I hadn't yet recycled this magazine: Archaeology Magazine, November/December 2006, "The Neanderthal Code". That is one of the articles I read recently. Unfortunately I would have to scan or type the long article explaining how they have extracted and analyzed the Neanderthal DNA, but here is a bit of it which explains what I said. The scientist is Dr. Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute (Switzerland, I think).

Sequencing the Neanderthal genome should provide a clearer picture of how much, if any, genetic material Neanderthals passed along to us. This is why Paabo is constantly asked whether Neanderthals had sex with modern humans. If so, Multi-Regional looks better (refering to a theory explained in the article); if not, and Neanderthal genetics differ widely from that of modern humans, the Multi-Regional Evolution boat has got a hole in it.

Paabo's research is already showing differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, and he clearly backs the Out-Of-Africa theory. He is tightlipped about the subject, citing pending publications. But a report in the journal Nature states his lab has already found substantial differences between the Y-chromosomes in Neanderthals and those in modern humans - another indication that the groups did not interbreed.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I don't think a bottle of wine and witty banter was the key to procreating. We can't assume they didn't pass genes just because they couldn't tell you to squeal like a pig.

Bruce you crack me up.


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I don't think so much where we came. I think about where we are going and the future evolution of man.

[Hippikos]

This is why Paabo is constantly asked whether Neanderthals had sex with modern humans.

Well, my ex always alleged she had...

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Tonchi

OK, glad I hadn't yet recycled this magazine...

Egad! By "recycle" you surely mean: donate to a Doctor's office or something? (Personally I stockpile mine, for future reference...)

[tw]

Geico has Neanderthal man going to his airplane for vacation. Suddenly he sees the ad - 'even a cave man could do it'. Look closely. While Neanderthal man is gapping at that ad, Cro-mangun man walks past behind him.

[bluesdave]

This report has just been released...

BERKELEY, CA —The veil of mystery surrounding our extinct hominid cousins, the Neanderthals, has been at least partially lifted to reveal surprising results. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) have sequenced genomic DNA from fossilized Neanderthal bones. Their results show that the genomes of modern humans and Neanderthals are at least 99.5-percent identical, but despite this genetic similarity, and despite the two species having cohabitated the same geographic region for thousands of years, there is no evidence of any significant crossbreeding between the two. Based on these early results, Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis last shared a common ancestor approximately 700,000 years ago

[Ibby]

I'm sorry, I dont really want to, but let's just be friends, okay?

[Clodfobble]

Just think--hundreds of thousands of years from now, the dolphin scientists will be studying our bones and marvel: "Look, even though humans and chimpanzees shared 98% of their DNA, for some reason there doesn't seem to have been a lot of cross-breeding!"

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by Flint

Egad! By "recycle" you surely mean: donate to a Doctor's office or something? (Personally I stockpile mine, for future reference...)

I do not delude myself that the scientific and archaeology magazines I subscribe to would interest people in a doctor's waiting room or some clinic. They are tortured enough by all the parenting and sports magazines and Newsweeks which are two years old. I tear out the articles which apply to my field of interest/expertise, i.e., anything about Latin America and the Mediterranean/Middle East, World History, religions - well, now that I think about it, just about everything about the previous inhabitants of this world interests me - and put these clippings into expandable folders in date order. Then Waste Management gets the rest. My "stockpile" habits had already filled up my house and garage, I had to finally draw some lines

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Just think--hundreds of thousands of years from now, the dolphin scientists will be studying our bones and marvel: "Look, even though humans and chimpanzees shared 98% of their DNA, for some reason there doesn't seem to have been a lot of cross-breeding!"

.