| There was a fascinating article in the October issue of National Geographic on Neanderthals, which outlined some of the current anthropology being done.
A couple of interesting snippets:
* Bite and cut marks on bones point to the Neanderthals being canabalistic. It's possible this was a development late in their existence as the Ice Age advanced and food became more scarce.
* Analysis of a pigmentation gene from the DNA of an individual at El Sidron indicates that at least some Neanderthals had red hair, pale skin and possibly freckles.
* Two El Sidron individuals also appeared to share with modern humans a version of a gene called FOXP2 that contributes to speech and language ability, acting not only in the brain but also on the nerves that control facial muscles.
* Due to the close similarities between Neanderthal and Human DNA, one of the biggest problems in analysis is to avoid contamination by human DNA. Extremely strict excavation practices have been put in place to address this problem.
* Humans emerged from Africa with the "cultural buffer" of an economically efficient approach to hunting and gathering that resulted in a more diverse diet. Neanderthals did not enjoy such benefits of a division of labor. The archaeological record shows that Neanderthals relied almost entire on hunting big and medium sized mammals. Neanderthal women and children probably participated in the hunts.
* From the article: "We know that the human and chimpanzee sequences are 98.7% the same, and Neanderthals are much closer to us than chimps. So the reality is that for most of the sequence there's no difference between Neanderthals and modern humans. But the differences - less than half of a percent of the sequence - are enough to confirm the two lineages had begun to diverge around 700,000 years ago."
"So while the new genetic evidence appears to confirm that Neanderthals were a separate species from us, it also suggests that they may have possess human language and were successful over a far larger sweep of Eurasia than previously thought."
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Sometimes, "I hit it with my axe" is the best solution. |