Love with a Neanderthal? It could have happened

Fort Wayne News-Sentinel ^ | Thursday, August 3, 2006 | Faye Flam

[SunkenCiv]

The question of sex with Neanderthals speaks to our understanding of ourselves, our origins and our uniqueness. If this other type of human being wasn't like us, what was he like? As I started researching this issue, I found myself staring at a picture of a nude Neanderthal man - a forensic sculpture created by Duke University paleoanthropologist Steve Churchill that was published last year in the journal Science. The model, based on a skeleton found at La Ferrassie in France, is mesmerizing in its combination of familiarity and alienness. To be honest, he's really not half bad looking. I can't say for certain I wouldn't sleep with him. He's got a good, muscular body, and while he's nobody's idea of handsome, that could be forgiven if he had a nice personality or I was starving and he offered to throw some rhino steaks on the fire for me.

[SunkenCiv]

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve

Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Biologist Alan Templeton of Washington University St. Louis has found hints that some people of European ancestry carry genes that emerged in Europe more than 300,000 years ago - far before our main ancestors left Africa. There's some speculation that genes associated with light skin and red hair first arose in Neanderthals, for example.

[lumber1]

IIRC - it's how "french" happened.

[madison10]

Where's the picture of Mr. Neadert(h)al? I want to judge for myself.

[martin_fierro]

The model, based on a skeleton found at La Ferrassie in France, is mesmerizing in its combination of familiarity and alienness. To be honest, he's really not half bad looking.

Faye really needs to date more.

[Gay State Conservative]

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves!

[Deguello]

The Neanderthals were the first to experiment with beer making?

[sully777]

Faye was known to watch Fish, Barney Miller, and the Godfather religiously.

[Pharmboy]

Both a buddy of mine and myself have prominent brow ridges and often joke about the Neandertal in our blood. And, he's Scots by birth and I'm Scots by Y-chromosome...hmmmm.

[Gay State Conservative]

Faye really needs to date more.

Hey,at least that guy was a good provider.If Bill Gates can get a honey,this guy wouldn't have much trouble.

[Lando Lincoln]

At least he combed his hair!

Lando

[martin_fierro]

l o l

[madison10]

Ewwww! No, he's not "half bad looking" he's TOTALLY bad looking.

[SunkenCiv]

That post was a little joke by martin fierro. That's not what Flam was looking at; instead, it is one of the old Neandertal-bashing displays.

[madison10]

LOL Kennewick man looked okay.

[JimSEA]

There's some speculation that genes associated with light skin and red hair first arose in Neanderthals, for example.

Unless the light skin and occasional red hair of our ape ancestors emerged again when dark skin no longer gave a reproductive advantage due to living in an environment with less sun than Africa?? The argument of course being that as human ancestors lost their body hair covering, dark skin evolved as protection for the skin from the sun -- in the Northern climes, light skin giving more sun exposure provided a reproductive advantage in a environment with limited sun. Always an argument one way or the other, isn't there.

Actually, I am inclined to believe, like you, that a combination of factors, one of which was inter breeding, contributed to the "disappearance" of the Neanderthal.

[JamesP81]

There's some speculation that genes associated with light skin and red hair first arose in Neanderthals, for example.

Hmm. And I've always thought ladies with red hair and light skin were very beautiful. Didn't know they were neanderthals. Maybe that explains the famous red-head temper...

(ducks)

[SunkenCiv]

Well put.

[Bernard Marx]

I can't say for certain I wouldn't sleep with him. He's got a good, muscular body, and while he's nobody's idea of handsome, that could be forgiven if he had a nice personality or I was starving and he offered to throw some rhino steaks on the fire for me.

This comment, which I think is naive, assumes the writer would have a choice about having sex with him. While I'm not aware of any real evidence either way, I'm intuitively convinced that in those days (as the saying used to go): "Seduction is for sissies; a he-man likes his rape." I think there was a good deal of truth to the old Alley Oop cliche of dragging women around by the hair.

I'm not arguing it was a proper way to behave and maybe I'm wrong about it. But the male sex drive is very powerful, as is the evolutionary imperative for males to spread their seed as widely as possible. If that big guy decided he wanted to cuddle I doubt the writer would have much say in the matter.