[blam]

Neanderthals R us.

[knarf]

All your Neanderthals are belong to us.

[crystalk]

Neanderthals must have been a sort of master race of their day-- inventors of superior German technology.

Then, they stopped having children any more, and let Muslims come in by the millions from North Africa. There went the neighborhood.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Dialup Llama]

If they dig down far enough maybe they'll find the Elf cities.

[PatrioticAmerican]

So, the Dems are smarter than we think, eh?

[randog]

Neanderthals mixed a kind of superglue to make tools. ...

Now they just buy it at Wal*Mart.

[avg_freeper]

Now all those cave paintings of Ug-Ug hanging on to a hard-hat glued to an I-beam make sense.

[Burkeman1]

Neanderthals- as I understand it- were Homo Sapiens- just a different race. While they had physical traits that are strikingly different from modern humans they are still genetically the same and could mate with modern man today. I am of the belief that Neanderthals were violently wiped out by early Cro Magnum man or in limited cases inbred with them.

[Prodigal Son]

So maybe we could rewrite the title to say "Neanderthals wiped out by glue sniffing addiction"

[The Duke]

Obviously Neanderthals had command of modern telecom technology - they're constantly calling me trying to get me to switch long distance providers.

[goodnesswins]

I thought duct tape came BEFORE superglue!

[GreenHornet]

Not only were Neanderthals the first to make "Superglue", but there is evidence to suggest that they developed an early version of the "Veg-A-Matic", enabling them to make delicious julian fries in seconds!

[willieroe]

Yeah, but did Neanderthals use the superglue to put on false eyelashes? Which begs the question - evolution or de-evolution?

[doug from upland]

So if we call RAT voters Neanderthals we are no longer insulting them???

[Rebelbase]

But they did'nt invent the popeil pocket fisherman.

[RikaStrom]

Hmmm, whodathunkit? Caveman with adhesive personalities.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

One theory why modern humans, especially Europeans, Caucasians, etc., have problems with wisdom teeth is that we have inherited the small jaws of non-Neanderthals, but the numerous teeth which were able to fit in larger Neanderthal jaws.

That's one theory anyway.

I have known people who did not have wisdom teeth: their teeth fit perfectly in their jaws, no need for extractions. I have also known people who not only had to have all four wisdom teeth removed, but who also had an extra set of four wisdom teeth behind those which had to be removed, and in one case, a third upper pair of half-formed wisdom teeth which the dentists did not touch because they were too close to the sinuses.

Tracing DNA material down the female line does not necessarily prove anything definitively, contrary to what scientific spin doctors tell you. The bulk of the population of Europe, for instance, can be traced directly back to a small number of female ancestors, according to some testing done recently, but that does not mean that only those limited number of female ancestors were the only female ancestors of today's population, since indirect female inheritance is not studied; other females with Neanderthal inheritance may have existed, who did not leave direct ancestors of their own, but who might have introduced Neanderthal genes into the non-Neanderthal population. In other words, it is not necessary to speculate exclusively about Neanderthal men impregnating non-Neanderthal woman, when the reverse could also have happened just as often; even if these Neanderthal women do not have direct female ancestors in today's population, they could have passed along, indirectly, some of their genetic inheritence to non-Neanderthal women who did, eventually, pass along these genes to today's populations.

Also, we still don't know a lot about DNA, and there is a good chance a lot gets passed along which cannot be traced with our current technology and current limited understanding of DNA.

Well, that's my take; others much more knowledgeable about DNA can debate this point.

The important point for me here is there is more indication that the neanderthals were not stupid; the idea they did not have a spoken language, for instance, will have to be dropped: you need a language to pass along the kind of knowledge to make these glues (not to mention the other evidence for organization requiring language which is already well known). The association of stupidity and primitiveness with neanderthals is a result of an unfortunate misunderstanding of the original fossils, which were misshapen.

[cinFLA]

"Researchers say Neanderthals had considerable technical and intellectual skills and were as ingenious as modern humans."

I knew Ted Kennedy was actually just trying to give a compliment to the justice nominees ....

[edwin hubble]

blam,
I am amazed at how you find all this fascinating material.

So...
Neanderthals buried their dead with flowers?
Made detailed or intricate tools?
Used skins and fur of animals for clothing in very cold climates?
Made glue?


But aren't they thought to have lacked the capacity for speech as we know it?
And how do we think this sophisticated information was conveyed and made part of the culture?

[fishtank]

I think the Neanderthals were simply long lived patriarchs a la some of the multi-centenarians described in the Bible.

[Burkeman1]

I have always been under the impression that "Neanderthals" were basically Homo Sapiens and not genetically any different from say a modern white man is from a modern black man? Am I wrong is this assumption?