This is an excerpt from a paper I recently wrote on Neandertals. It is only a rough draft, so please take the opportunity to point out any flaws or information errors. I would also be interested as to whether the majority of evolutionists side with the single-origin or the multiorigin model. (This was pasted over from notepad so please forgive any formatting errors, particularly species names not being italicized".
"C. Neandertals Place in Human Origins
Two major hypotheses have arisen in an attempt to answer where different finds fit into the history of human origins. The Neandertal has also been incorporated into these theories, though the debate as to which is more accurate is far from over.
1. The Multiregional Model
According to this hypotheses, Homo sapiens developed from populations of Homo erectus in many different areas across the globe. These transformations occured in all populations of H erectus wherever they existed. Such transformations led to a near simultaneous appearance of multiple populations of modern humans across Africa and Europe. This human evolution was shaped by gene flow, natural selection and genetic drift. Gene flow is credited with preventing populations of H erectus from radiating into several different species. Hence, in between H sapien and H erectus are some archaic humans that are difficult to place because of their perceived intermediate appearance. Such a view was first proposed in detail by Gustav Schwalbe who argued that there was an evolutionary sequence which began with Pithecanthropus, led to Neandertal and continued on to modern human.
Fifty years ago, Franz Weidenreich proposed a potentially dangerous concept. Weidenreich suggested that such a transition from H erectus to H sapien, occured in a parallel fashion in various regions of the world. ( Such a notion might give rise to the belief that if in each part of the world there is a seperate transition from H erectus to H sapien, perhaps the transition is slower in some areas. Under such circumstances, certain races would be viewed as more evolved than others giving rise to racist additude among some, and scientific justifiability to other extremists, some of whom may wield power. Such circumstances would not be unlike the persecution of the Jews by Hitler who held that they were the most inferior race.). In 1942, Weidenreich clearly stated that it was not his view that modern humans had seperate origins or that they were a seperate species. Despite Weidenreich distancing himself from such a belief, University of Pennsylvania anthropologist Carelton Coon came eerily close to embracing what Weidenreich had warned against. In 1962, Coon argued that racial differences were ancient and that some races had acheived their sapienhood earlier than others. (Such a view is incredibly dangerous, as I have already written). For a very brief time (just under two years) Coon's view was accepted enough that it became too difficult to place for some believed the Neandertal to be an extinct side branch while other believed that the Neandertal of Western Europe was the evolutionary product of the less extreme and distorted forms that have been found through the Middle East and Eastern Europe, which gave rise to modern humans. Two years past, and in 1964, University of Michagan professor Loren Brace argued that Neandertal anatomy had been mistakenly interpreted as extreme and that it could actually be seen as ancestral to the of later European modern people. Brace's view restored Neandertal's to where they were before Weidenreich and more particularly, Coon.
2. The Single Origin Model
This notion states that a population of the modern form of H sapiens arose in Africa at an early date and spread rapidly across Asia and Europe. The modern form is referred to as Homo sapiens sapiens which enables researchers to distinguish it from other archaic forms. It refers to the subspecies H sapiens which includes both modern and archaic forms.
Under the single origin moder many archaic forms of H sapiens that have been found in Asia or Europe are believed to have evolved into H Erectus, but not necessarily into H sapiens sapiens. Being one of the more well known archaic forms, Homo sapiens neandertalensis, believed to have lived between 130 000 and 35 000 years ago, was at one point considered a direct ancestor to modern humans. It is now generally accepted among scientists, based on fossil finds, that modern humans did not evolve from populations of Neandertals.
Where does that leave the Neandertal? Experts for over a certury have asked and sought out whether modern europeans carry some of the same genes that gave life to the Neandertal man. An answer could determine whether or not modern europeans are descendants of the Neandertal as the multiregionalits would argue. In an incredible feat, researchers at the University of Munich were able to cut away a small piece of a Neandertal's right upper arm bone. Led by Svante Paablo, the researchers extracted a small amount of DNA from the Neandertal's bone and then compared it with modern genes. The result: The Neandertal DNA was substantially different from the DNA of modern humans. This was enough to rule out the possibility that they were our ancestors. Paablo concluded that his find suggests "that Neandertals were extinct without contributing mitochondrial DNA to modern humans."
Such a discovery did not destroy the multiregional belief, for the multiregional model made a significant comeback when in Israel ( the Kebara Cave, Mount Carmel, and Amud near the sea of Galilee) Neandertals were discovered. This in itself was not grounbreaking. What was though was that they were found to be approximately 60 000 years old while the modern forms nearby were 40 000 years old. Assuming these dates are correct this presents a perfect time progression from the Neandertal to the modern form.
Given the newer dating methods, electronic spin resonance, and thermoluninesence, some skeletons were found to have lived 100 000 years ago. The Neandertal's in Tabun, Israel were slightly older, which does allow for the possibility of an ancestor/descendant relationship. That some modern forms are older than Neandertal's is not relevant because those who hold to the multiregionalist view, make no distinction between individuals, for they feel that all members of an anatomically variable population. Some, like Roger Lewin, have dismissed this as special pleading, for such a view would require a variability unknown in any other human populations. If the Neandertal simply became extinct then he should be placed under the name Homo Neandertalensis as Irish anatomist William King first proposed in 1864."
Apostle
[This message has been edited by Apostle, 01-09-2004]
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