[titanmike]

You might not need to go back that far. Consider Jay Matternes' reconstruction of the neanderthal:

And then consider the sort of image which Sir Mortimer Wheeler called a "priest/king type" found in Indus Valley sites:

Notice any sort of a resemblence?

[Centurion2000]

bump ... interesting

[VadeRetro]

Your buddy Jay's reconstructions lack the occiptal bun and "simian muzzle" of most Neanderthal reconstructions which are based upon actual skulls. If a guy named medved didn't used to make the same posts (your 50 and 58) all the time until he was banned, I'd be surprised that you would post these very human-looking pictures while claiming that Neanderthals represented a halfway point between chimps and humans.

The genetic studies so far have been based on mtDNA, which is almost purely matrilineal and probably not a good enough molecular clock for the purpose. (A nuclear DNA study would be nice, if a good-enough specimen is ever found.) Also, as this survey article indicates, the anatomical differences are far more pronounced in Europe than they are elsewhere, especially the Near East. There thus may have been a local "species gap" that didn't exist everywhere at once. The situation would have resembled modern ring species in birds and salamanders.