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No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
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Instant DNA Scan is SMRT, I Mean S-M-A-R-T
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Sora-Chan
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
I dont know, there is some evidence supporting that they did indeed crossbreed, such as a possible hybrid skeleton that was found. Also some remains that had some DNA they were able to extract that had something quite interesting, they had FOXP2, just like we did.

For those of you who dont know what FOXP2 is, its a gene thats for languistics in humans, you know for talking to each other and what not.

Now I guess its entirly possible that they evolved it on their own (very unlikly) got it from a common ancestor as us (more likly but still unlikly) or there was some crossbreeding involved that gave one speices it.

Then theres the divergance of races in modern humans. Some scientists have said that there was too little time for there to become so many races that there are now without something interfering with the gene pool.

As for some of you who mentioned Mules being sterile, thats not always true, every once in a while a donkey/horse (Mule) hybrid, will be fertile. Given enough time and a good number of them happening, we could have fertile mules breeding with each other and their parent speices.
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lilad
12/10/08

@Sora-Chan: Races as a biological concept applied to humans is pretty meaningless.

So I don't really know what you're saying.
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corpore-metal
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
Well, hmmmmmmm. Don't really know what to make of this yet. When I studied physical anthropology in school, the assimilation theory was still quite strong. The idea was that the Neanderthal peoples weren't really all that different from the rest of us.

But I guess that's going to change now.

And I think some of these comments here have the faintest whiff of racism. The reason I say that is because Neanderthals are so close to us insofar as we can deduce their physical and mental characteristics from the tiny smattering of evidence we have that they all could be due to mere ethnic variation.

Don't know what to make of this yet. I mean it's pretty hard to ignore DNA evidence.
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FREEBS72..The Flying Sumo
12/10/08

@corpore-metal: WOW, that would really be a huge argument if they found a lost group of them somewhere(talking book material here). Racism against a race that did lose the Evolutionary Race long ago.
That would bo a good read(if it was done well).
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lilad
12/10/08

@FREEBS72..The Flying Sumo: I just finished an intro physical anthropology class, and the we were told that they may have interbred but it was more likely that Homo sapiens simply replaced Neandertals.

But, it was also stressed that the Neandertals weren't that different from modern humans, and that the idea of Neandertals being brutish cavemen is wrong.
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JaviDecimal
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
Are you sure?

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Rasselas
12/09/08

@I ♥ Anderson: +1. "I'm just a caveman. Your 'strikes' and 'balls' frighten and confuse me."
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Meirelle
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
I'm guessing the offspring were probably sterile. You know, like Ligers.
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GiltProto
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
My uncle Bob is living proof that disputes these findings.
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Liz11685
12/11/08

@GiltProto: So is my uncle Bob... I sense a trend.
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RAHfanboy
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
@The_Sporean_Bob: Yeah, I gotta go with the "mule," sterile offspring theory. Many closely related species can breed in a limited fashion, and, without further evidence, I would see no reason to expect otherwise in this case.
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hidflect
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
I think red hair is the product of 2 different recessive blond genes. Which is why the Scottish have so many red heads, having mixed Scandanavian and Anglo Saxon blood...
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goldfarb
12/09/08

@hidflect: another reason to keep a close eye on the Ginger Headed...and southpaws.
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Rasselas
12/09/08

In reply to No Neanderthal Ancestors for Modern Humans
Wasn't red hair one of the things that European homo sapiens supposedly inherited from Neanderthal forbears?
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