[lbo-talk] Thumbs, ecosystems, neanderthals

[Steven L. Robinson]

My understanding is that the DNA analysis of neanderthals thus far suggests no interbreeding with the culturally modern humans they encountered. I read something quite recently that suggests the gestation/infancy cycle in Neanderthals was longer than it is for the moderns - which means they didn't reproduce as quickly as their modern competition - possibly explaining their disappearance. 5,000 years ago is much too recent for that - 25,000 or 30,000 years ago is closer to the mark.

The variety of human that co-existed with us until much more recently - until at least 8,000 years ago - is the so called "Hobbit" of Flores, which is hugely controversial for a number of reasons. This human cousin had a very small brain by size yet endocasts of its skull show its brain had all the equipment it needed for speech, cognition, tool making etc.  It did in fact use tools and it, or its ancestors, somehow got across the Wallace line in Indonesia (i.e., the geographic barrier of ocean between Asiatic and Australian animal life) that it was once thought only culturally modern humans could cross.  SR 

----- Original Message -----

From: Carrol Cox 

To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org

Sent: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:58:21 +0000 (UTC)

Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Thumbs, ecosystems, neanderthals

This stuff seems to change rapidly, and my reading is about 3-5 years

old. The Neaandertals & humans coexisted for about 60k years, then after

humans entered europe, the Neandertals there disappeared in about 5k

years. Only speculation on the exact nature of the interaction.

Carrol