What if... Prehistoric edition! =D

[knez]

i was under impression that genetic research proved there wasn't any significant amount of neanderthal genom in modern european population ?????????

 

[philippe]

That was big news at the time, mainly because of the cutesy "hobbit" nickname. As the article you quote makes clear, scientists still disagree over whether it was really a distinct species or simply some people with growth defects. 12,000 years ago is also incredibly recent for another hominid species to have been running around - Neanderthals, by contrast, disappeared about 30,000 years ago, which is itself pretty recent by the standards of human evolution.

the thing is, if it was a distinct species and if it had contacts with other humans, it may well be there could be intermixing and it could be proven if we could take DNA-samples from both the poeple living in that region in Indonesia and the samples discovered.

It may be a longshot but it's the most viable possibility of any intermixing of two humanoid species.

 

[alcal]

the thing is, if it was a distinct species and if it had contacts with other humans, it may well be there could be intermixing and it could be proven if we could take DNA-samples from both the poeple living in that region in Indonesia and the samples discovered.

It may be a longshot but it's the most viable possibility of any intermixing of two humanoid species.

Once i've on history channel, that indonesians believe in existence of a bipedal intelligent monkey, who lives in forests. Actually scientist are searching it.

 

[WICKLC1]

Actually Neanderthals had slightly a larger cranium capacity than modern humans which probably means that they had larger brains. That doesn't necesarily mean that they were smarter though.

The Neanderthals became extinct because they were too specialized and slow to adapt, not because they were dumb.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

I am pretty much 100% certain that Neanderthals and modern humans at least tried interbreeding, at least once. Whether there is any Neanderthal DNA in us depends on the success of that interbreeding, but I know human nature too well to think no one tried.

 

[WICKLC1]

I am pretty much 100% certain that Neanderthals and modern humans at least tried interbreeding, at least once. Whether there is any Neanderthal DNA in us depends on the success of that interbreeding, but I know human nature too well to think no one tried.

Yeah, if people will try it with donkeys, they'd of tried it with Neanderthals.

 

[Princeps]

Can I point out that, first, Neanderthals were human, so you shouldn't contrast Neanderthals on the one hand with humans on the other; and second, no-one knows what their intelligence/thought patterns/general personality was like. There's certainly no reason to suppose that they were stupider than us. In fact I'm not sure I can even imagine that...

They might've had brain power -- in fact, they probably had larger brains that we do, iirc -- but they might've lacked a critical mental faculty, such as for example, high creativity.

 

[Zardnaar]

We still don't knnow 100% what wiped the Neanderthals out. Inbreeding with humans is a possability. If they did survive to the modern day in isolated areas I would imgine they would have been treated like various primitive tribesmen around the world.

Another words badly by their more civilised cousins.