Posted on 02/26/2006 3:25:01 AM PST by Pharmboy
Maybe they just didn't have time to get to know each other.
The question of what Neanderthals and Homo sapiens might have done on cold nights in their caves, if they happened to get together and the fire burned down to embers, has intrigued scientists since the 19th century, when the existence of Neanderthals was discovered.
A correction in the way prehistoric time is measured using radiocarbon dating, described last week in the journal Nature, doesn't answer the enduring question, but it might at least help explain why no DNA evidence of interbreeding has been found: the two species spent less time together than was previously believed.
The old radiocarbon calculation is now known to be off by as much as several thousand years, the new research shows. That means that modern Homo sapiens barged into Europe 46,000 years ago, 3,000 years earlier than once estimated. But the radiocarbon dating under the new calculation also shows that their takeover of the continent was more rapid, their coexistence with the native Neanderthals much briefer.
snip...
Was that advantage cognitive, technological or demographic? Their personal ornaments and cave art, now seen to have emerged much earlier, are strong evidence for an emergence of complex symbolic behavior among the modern newcomers, a marked advance in their intelligence.
That doesn't mean they didn't interbreed with the Neanderthals.
snip...
"Since these two species may have been able to interbreed, as many closely related mammal species can," Dr. Harvati said, "a restricted coexistence interval may be easier to reconcile with the observed lack of Neanderthal genetic contribution to the modern human gene pool and with the paucity of convincing fossil evidence for hybridization."
The caves, it would seem, still hold their secrets.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Unfortunately there are very disturbed people even nowadays.
Wow - you're right! I read that completely backward. Or rather, I read the "less" as if it were a "more".. Sorry!
All I can tell you is that, while I have kissed many a frog in my day, hoping he would turn into a prince, I would never voluntarily kiss a Neanderthal.
We all know that men aren't as picky as women, but even so, how many men are randy enough to mate with another species? Other than frat boys?
Is that a poll call?
ping for discussion lol
So maybe another factor is how fast you can run?
Well I just happen to know someone that never lost his Neanderthal tendencies - now get out there and spear us a deer for dinner or I'll lock you out of the cave! :)
That, or how well you could use a sharpened elk bone. "God made man and woman, Sam Colt made them equal" is just an update.
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