Re: DISCOVER/Neanderthal/Homo Sap.

Bearcat (bcat@netcom.com)
Mon, 4 Sep 1995 21:30:28 GMT

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu) wrote:

: So then the question is whether the Neanderthals and the Africans
: had separated sufficiently to be unable to breed again. Appealing
: to bone shapes is pointless since we couldn't make this method
: give the right answer in the hypotethical case of the dogs.

The date when Homo erectus spread out of Africa has been
pushed back to two million years or so. If Neanderthal is
the descendant early Homo erectus colonizers, and Cro Magnon
the descendant of Homo erectus who remained in Africa, surely
that would be enough time isolated from one another for such
speciation to occur that they would not produce viable offspring.

- Bearcat