Posted on 01/15/2007 4:48:07 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - A skull found in a cave in Romania includes features of both modern humans and Neanderthals, possibly suggesting that the two may have interbred thousands of years ago.
Neanderthals were replaced by early modern humans. Researchers have long debated whether the two groups mixed together, though most doubt it. The last evidence for Neanderthals dates from at least 24,000 years ago.
The skull bearing both older and modern characteristics is discussed in a paper by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis. The report appears in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The skull was found in Pestera cu Oase — the Cave with Bones — in southwestern Romania, along with other human remains. Radiocarbon dating indicates it is at least 35,000 years old and may be more than 40,000 years old.
The researchers said the skull had the same proportions as a modern human head and lacked the large brow ridge commonly associated with Neanderthals. However, there were also features that are unusual in modern humans, such as frontal flattening, a fairly large bone behind the ear and exceptionally large upper molars, which are seen among Neanderthals and other early hominids.
"Such differences raise important questions about the evolutionary history of modern humans," said co-author Joao Zilhao of the University of Bristol, England.
It could reflect a case in which ancient traits reappear in a modern human, or it could indicate a mixture of populations, Zilhao said. Or it simply may be that science hasn't been able to study enough early modern people to understand their diversity.
Dr. Richard Potts of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History noted that the skull represents the earliest modern human ever found in Europe.
It's a big deal in that sense, he said, but the combination of characteristics don't necessarily indicate interbreeding between populations.
Overall there is no strong evidence for mixing of Neanderthal and modern human populations and "this doesn't add any," said Potts, who wasn't part of the research team.
None of the features cited as unusual in modern humans is exclusively Neanderthal, Potts said. Rather, they could be features passed down from earlier populations in Africa.
The field work that uncovered the skull was conducted in 2004 and 2005.
Meanwhile, a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is trying to map the Neanderthal genome in hopes of better understanding any possible relationship to modern people.
The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Green Foundation, Washington University, the Leakey Foundation, the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science, the Romanian National Council for Academic Research and the Foundation Fyssen.
This skull, ffound in Pestera cu Oase - the Cave with Bones - in southwestern Romania, includes features of both modern humans and Neanderthals, possibly suggesting that the two hominid species may have interbred thousands of years ago. The skull is discussed in a paper by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis. The report appears in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/National Academy of Sciences)
On the Net:
PNAS: http://www.pnas.org
Ping-a-rooski
Judging from the gaping hole in his skull, is it safe to say he didn't die of natural causes?
Well, if they had read Clan of the Cave Bear they would know.....
susie
It looks like a bad headache, for sure.
Prehistoric rolling pin probably found right next to the skull.
A Vince Fosteresque suicide?
ROFL
Arkansas Man.
I just learned yesterday that when Vesuvius erupted, it's victim's brains first boiled and then exploded outward, which has absolutely nothing to do with this thread except that this post reminded me of that.
Red hair?
You know, I think that a rebuilt New Orleans should be renamed "Pompei" as the residents there seem intent upon living smack in the path of natural disaster.
Looks like Danny Partridge.
LOL...OK, now you've done it.
Did they check for Geico insurance.
Why not? I think they're toying with the idea of changing Malibu's name to Herculaneum....
Here we go with this again....
That's right, he's the dad. They also found a large pile of empty beers gourds near the fire pit. Investigators theorize he was thumped for refusing to take out the garbage.
Possibly; suggesting; maybe. She loves me, she loves me not. Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL. Keep that up and you'll have to change your name to BenDead, lol.
Depends. You'd have to check for radial fractures and all sorts of other evidence of trauma.
The abstract for the 2003 article doesn't mention trauma so its more likely that the skull was damaged after death:
The 2002 discovery of a robust modern human mandible in the Petera cu Oase, southwestern Romania, provides evidence of early modern humans in the lower Danubian Corridor. Directly accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (14C)-dated to 34,000–36,000 14C years B.P., the Oase 1 mandible is the oldest definite early modern human specimen in Europe and provides perspectives on the emergence and evolution of early modern humans in the northwestern Old World. The moderately long Oase 1 mandible exhibits a prominent tuber symphyseos and overall proportions that place it close to earlier Upper Paleolithic European specimens. Its symmetrical mandibular incisure, medially placed condyle, small superior medial pterygoid tubercle, mesial mental foramen, and narrow corpus place it closer to early modern humans among Late Pleistocene humans. However, its cross-sectional symphyseal orientation is intermediate between late archaic and early modern humans, the ramus is exceptionally wide, and the molars become progressively larger distally with exceptionally large third molars. The molar crowns lack derived Neandertal features but are otherwise morphologically undiagnostic. However, it has unilateral mandibular foramen lingular bridging, an apparently derived Neandertal feature. It therefore presents a mosaic of archaic, early modern human and possibly Neandertal morphological features, emphasizing both the complex population dynamics of modern human dispersal into Europe and the subsequent morphological evolution of European early modern humans. Source
Genesis 6
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Knock that off, Blam.
;]
Ya know, it's one thing being called a Neanderthal but now you're calling us Nephilim?
LOL!
"The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them."
Who were the sons of God that they should look upon the daughters of men? It seems as if this sentence is saying that they were not men. Then who were they?
Quite a lot could be interpreted from that sentence.
tooo damn funny...
I suspect that happened after the fact, when neolithic stoners modified the skull for use as a bong.
Seems someone went slumming way back when.
Dude Man.
I seem to remember similar stories from Greece before the flood, with the Titans and Gods warring. Where are those histories written?
I recently heard the explanation that makes the most sense to me by a theologian (I think it was Dr. R. C. Sproul)
He demonstrated they were not angels. He said the daughters of men were descendants of Cain while the sons of God were not. The mixture of Cain's nature with the other descendants was the precursor to the need for the flood.
I found his explanation fascinating and need to reflect on it more.
These Neanderthal chicks may not be much to look at, but they sure are easy!
This is also a theme in the apocryphal Book of Enoch: "6:1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children.'" http://www.world-mysteries.com/awr_1_10.htm
There's some wild stuff in there.
Stop bring up James Carville. But then he does look..............LOL
The angel theory doesn't make sense to me, as angels evidently don't 'breed'. The idea that the daughters of men were the descendents of Cain is possible. I've sometimes wondered if maybe Daughters of men = Neanderthals.
The idea that these were angels can be found in the Book of Enoch, which although isn't canonical is referenced to in the New Testament. I'm not sure how much of the book can be trusted, what little I've read of it is pretty wild.
Possible...all possible. But it just doesn't add up.
If the daughters of men were the descendents of Cain then how does that make everyone else the sons of God?
Man was created from the elements of the Earth...and woman from man.
This doesn't seem a likely creature to be called the 'sons of God'.
Men were men and they had daughters. The passages in Genesis speak of giants who were called the sons of God...the Nephilim. To me, this speaks directly of a different species...and it creeps me out when I think on it too long.
It's almost a little too Erich von Danikenish.
Exploding cell phone battery.
Well, you know what they say-once you go Cro-Magnon, you never go back...
Link to teaching by RC Sproul of this verse on daughters etc.
01/04/2007 - Thursday
"A Flood of Evil"
For broadband click here.
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From the series: Drama of Redemption Audio Collection
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