Re: Neanderthals as dead end?

trygve lode (tlode@nyx10.cs.du.edu)
25 Nov 1994 21:52:01 -0700

In article <sarimaCzr7tu.1o1@netcom.com> sarima@netcom.com (Stanley Friesen) writes:
>In article <3arnnd$l0h@dockmaster.phantom.com>,
>Steve Sohn <sasohn@phantom.com> wrote:
>>
>>Why must there be a clear-cut delineation? Similarities to classic
>>Neanderthalensis exist in "typical" E European (Slavic) populus, etc.
>>Does any variant really disappear, or is there always a traceable
>>element? Consider that we are all made of recycled matter . . .
>>
>Well, this depends on how closely you look at these "similarities".
>In fact the classic neandertal, and its close kin in the Levant,
>have certain *unique* anatomical features: occipital bunning,
>and more distinctive, a unique form of brow ridge (not merely a
>heavy brow ridge, but one with a shape different from any later
>or earlier hominid populatio - all modern people with a heavy brow
>ridge have the sort seen in pre-neandertal Homo erectus and
>archaic H. sapiens, not that seen in the neandertal).

Hmmmmm...I'll have to find out what the difference is between the
neanderthal-type brow ridge and the regular variety; even if it
turns out that mine is just the ordinary type, at least I can still
take comfort in having occipital bunning. (At least the latter is
apparently a feature unique to neanderthals--that way I don't have
to feel bad for checking "other" and writing in "neanderthal" on
forms that ask for one's race.) 

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