Neanderthals

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Here is a news item about humans and neanderthals mating in Europe/Asia much earlier than the first major migrations out of Africa 60000 years ago.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35595661

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Neanderthals and modern humans were interbreeding much earlier than was previously thought, scientists say.

Traces of human DNA found in a Neanderthal genome suggest that we started mixing with our now-extinct relatives 100,000 years ago.

Previously it had been thought that the two species first encountered each other when modern humans left Africa, about 60,000 years ago.

And this means that they had left Africa before the larger dispersal that took place at least 40,000 years later.

This adds to the idea that early forays out of the continent took place. Other recent evidence includes early human fossils found in Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel, and recent research that suggests people were living in China at least 80,000 years ago.

Commenting on the study Prof Chris Stringer, research leader in human origins, from the Natural History Museum in London, said: "I think that anywhere in southern Asia could theoretically have been the location of this early interbreeding, since we really don't know how widespread Neanderthals and early modern humans might have been in the regions between Arabia and China at this time."

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Cheers.

Sriram

[Leonard James]

Adding knowledge to our history is very interesting, but it is more important to think about where we are going, not where we have been.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Adding knowledge to our history is very interesting, but it is more important to think about where we are going, not where we have been.

If ever there was a post to curb enthusiasm the above must be a candidate.

[Leonard James]

If ever there was a post to curb enthusiasm the above must be a candidate.

Anybody who believes that the past is more important than the future is sadly backward thinking.

[Bubbles]

Anybody who believes that the past is more important than the future is sadly backward thinking.

No, I think it's important.

He who forgets the past is doomed to repeat it.

Although we can't repeat it, I think discovering our roots tells us things about ourselves.

It's the same with dinosaurs and our planet further back.

We need to understand how everything works.

Things like global warming, how much has our planet changed in the past will reveal how damaging our effect on the planet is.

Disease is another one.

We need the past.

Without considering the past, we might find we have no future.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

TBH there has been an argument between "splitters" and "lumpers" for decades, the former camp has been dominant for the past twenty years, this seems to me to indicate a revival of the lumpers.

[Leonard James]

No, I think it's important.

He who forgets the past is doomed to repeat it.

Although we can't repeat it, I think discovering our roots tells us things about ourselves.

It's the same with dinosaurs and our planet further back.

We need to understand how everything works.

Things like global warming, how much has our planet changed in the past will reveal how damaging our effect on the planet is.

Disease is another one.

We need the past.

Without considering the past, we might find we have no future.

You've done it again, Rose ... you really should pay attenrtion! 

I didn't say the past wasn't important ... I said the the future was more important. Would you deny that?

[Bubbles]

Tbh I think the Neanderthals were human anyway.

Just a different group, at the time it probably made no more difference than someone being of a different ethnic group.

I doubt if  it ever occurred to their potential mates, that they were in some way nearer to animals.

I think that's only become a problem, because it offends some peoples egos.

[Bubbles]

You've done it again, Rose ... you really should pay attenrtion! 

I didn't say the past wasn't important ... I said the the future was more important. Would you deny that?

No

I'll concede that one    my apologies

🌹

[jeremyp]

Tbh I think the Neanderthals were human anyway.

There is, I believe, some question about that. I guess the fact that humans could interbreed with them suggests that, under one definition, they were not a completely separate species.

Just a different group, at the time it probably made no more difference than someone being of a different ethnic group.

Neanderthals would have looked much more physically distinct than Africans and caucasians (for example).

I doubt if  it ever occurred to their potential mates, that they were in some way nearer to animals.

Both humans and neanderthals are animals. One can't be nearer than the other. And humans and neanderthals are both equally near to our closest living relatives.

[Udayana]

Adding knowledge to our history is very interesting, but it is more important to think about where we are going, not where we have been.

hmm... but it is very unlikely that there are any Neanderthals left to mate with!

[Humph Warden Bennett]

hmm... but it is very unlikely that there are any Neanderthals left to mate with!

We could always bring them back through selective breeding. Well if it works with mammoths, it will work with humans too.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

We could always bring them back through selective breeding. Well if it works with mammoths, it will work with humans too.

Yes I think they should bring back hippies. Apparently hippy DNA was trapped in cannabis resin.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

 

[Brownie]

Tbh I think the Neanderthals were human anyway.

They were Rose, early man who became extinct as the Cro-magnon people increased and grew stronger.  It bugs me when they are alluded to as non-human or subhuman but I suppose people haven't researched them and don't know any different.  They were a very well regulated society albeit primitive by later standards.