Neanderthal extinction

[Rekkr]

I suppose the evidence backing this is slim, but it is my theory that we and Neanderthals bred together. The Neaderthals never went "extinct", they simply merged with the existing human populations. But like I said before, little backs this other than the evidence found in the Portugal cave. I have heard that scientists have analyzed both human and Neanderthal DNA and have determined that we are not related. Can someone more enlightened on this subject explain it in detail? Perhaps our Neanderthal DNA relics/traces simply disappeared over time?

 

One thing I find interesting about Neanderthals is that their culture was so similar, perhaps even more advanced, than ours was at the time. Neanderthals ritually buried their dead and they played on flutes with the first four notes of do ray mi fa. But I cannot speak of their social culture. I suppose none of this evidence means anything significant though...

[Gnieus]

Man that Horizon [british Science Telly] program about NT was lame ... All that idiotic music .... It's getting worse ...

 

Re Neanderthal I thought the child skeleton found in Portugal afaik was some evidence for interbreeding. Re Basques: Neanderthal - there is a connection from the Basques to the celts, some of them short and stocky. But that's all conjecture. One should always have in mind that we don't really know what went on.

[Gnieus]

One thing I find interesting about Neanderthals is that their culture was so similar, perhaps even more advanced, than ours was at the time. Neanderthals ritually buried their dead and they played on flutes with the first four notes of do ray mi fa. But I cannot speak of their social culture. I suppose none of this evidence means anything significant though...

 

 

I remember seeing a film showing their jewellry which was less sophisticated and seemed to be a copy of H s. s. jewelry. The guess was they were less sophisticated. They make it up as they go ..

[syntax252]

 

One thing I find interesting about Neanderthals is that their culture was so similar' date=' perhaps even more advanced, than ours was at the time. Neanderthals ritually buried their dead and they played on flutes with the first four notes of do ray mi fa. But I cannot speak of their social culture. I suppose none of this evidence means anything significant though...[/quote']

 

I would doubt that they were in any way superior to "us" because if they had been, it would have been us being dug up by them.

[Newtonian]

They could have been superior spiritually, and being one with nature.Sat there in the cave contemplating the meaning of life.

Then sapien the war monger(joyfully swinging his stick)grunting up the hill,smashed all their skulls in,raped the females they didnt kill.

Therefore i vote for interbreeding.

[Hellbender]

I would doubt that they were in any way superior to "us" because if they had been, it would have been us being dug up by them[/b'].

superior at the time.

[JLB]

Contagious diseases did not arise (measles, mumps, chicken pox, tuberculosis, etc.) until after the domestication of animals. This did not occur until well after the disappearance of Neanderthals. Therefore, disease was likely not the reason.

 

There was some evidence of interbreeding, yes, but not enough to continue the dominant characteristics. Mitachondrial DNA would probably be needed to substantiate this.

 

There have been a mix of fossils found in caves, but whether this meant co-habitation or successive living arrangements (one group, hss, displacing the other) is being debated.

 

I think there is much to be said for the reasons for the demise of the Neanderthal being related more to the change in climate making living for the Cro-magnon more possible, for the different abilities that Cro-Magnon had which allowed for finer tuned hunting, more sophisticated diets and clothing, technological changes that could be built one upon the next, and the time for leisure and the development of decorative items and drawings. That much is reasonably certain.

 

For neanderthal as well as Cro-magnon there is evidence of burial indicative of some spiritual belief system.

 

As for speech, this is a point that paleolinguists are still debating though more credit is being given now, I think, to the Neanderthals having more capability than was first thought.

 

Survival of the fittest would be an explanation but with a change in habitat due to climate being a factor in 'who was fittest'.

[Hellbender]

As for speech, this is a point that paleolinguists are still debating though more credit is being given now, I think, to the Neanderthals having more capability than was first thought.

 

neanderthals had a hyoid bone as well, making humans and neanderthals the only apes known to have this structure. Thi smeans that neanderthals could vocalize, but probably not as good as humans can.

 

Survival of the fittest would be an explanation but with a change in habitat due to climate being a factor in 'who was fittest'.

 

out of all the theories presentes here, this one is the most sound.