Re: "Was Neanderthal White ?"

FaStAg (fastag@aol.com)
27 Jun 1995 01:38:40 -0400

soriano+@pitt.edu (David Soriano) wrote:

>What happened to this homonid (Neanderthals)? Did it interbreed with
Homo-Sapiens?

One good book to read about Neanderthals is 'In Search of Neanderthals' by
Christopher Stringer and Clive Gamble, pub. Thames and Hudson.
Neanderthal remains have also been found in Central Asia and as far south
as Palestine where they may have shared cave dwelling with early homo
sapiens (I can't remember whether I read about the cave sharing in this
book or some other). So co-existance is a possibility. Inter-breeding is
anybodies guess. I don't think DNA from that far back that been found
yet. Though, technically, it is possible.

Asking whether Neanderthals were white or not (for the moment, leaving
aside the dubious nature of the whole 'race' thing) is like asking
whether chimpanzees are white. They're different species, it doesn't
compute.