All in the Family - Guest star: Neanderthal

Neanderthals and modern humans not only coexisted for thousands of years long ago, as anthropologists have established, but now their little secret is out: they also cohabited.At least that is the interpretation being made by paleontologists who have examined the 24,500-year-old skeleton of a young boy discovered recently in a shallow grave in Portugal. Bred in the boy's bones seemed to be a genetic heritage part Neanderthal, part early modern Homo sapiens. He was a hybrid, they concluded, and the first strong physical evidence of interbreeding between the groups in Europe."This skeleton demonstrates that early modern humans and Neanderthals are not all that different," said Dr. Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. "They intermixed, interbred and produced offspring."Although some scientists disputed the interpretation, other scientists who study human origins said in interviews last week that the findings were intriguing, probably correct and certain to provoke debate and challenges to conventional thinking about the place of Neanderthals in human evolution.Neanderthals and modern humans presumably were more alike than different, not a separate species or even subspecies, but two groups who viewed each other as appropriate mates.
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"This find should be devastating to the out-of-Africa people," Dr. Wolpoff said. "It shows their theory doesn't work, at least in Europe. And it shows that fundamentally, Neanderthals are the same species we are and they contributed their genes to European ancestry."

Let's hear what people think and why they think it.

we were taught Cro-magnon averaged 6' tall

Neaderthal seems misrepresented as well.

it does reflect my view of Neanderthals not as a separate species

So cut it out, you old fart geologist idiot.

Nuggins, I think evos ought to consider Neanderthals and Cro-magnons and modern people all the same species.

my understanding is Neanderthals had larger brains and a side view limits some aspects as well

The basic problem is we could find 3 people today, line them up, dress them funny, one shaven and another not, and create a similar line-up.

Because evos look at things differently, I don't think they are going to call Homo Erectus the same species, but I have no problem with that, or perhaps species is not the best term.