Comments on: Short-Lived? Hardly—Neanderthals Matched Early Humans’ Lifespan

By: Jim Mooney

Jim Mooney — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 03:18:11 +0000

We need only look at George W. Bush to realize the neanderthals did not die out, but interbred with humans quite prolifically. Even now, many women prefer the neanderthal look and physique, so there was obviously a lot of interbreeding.

By: Jim Mooney

Jim Mooney — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 03:15:37 +0000

Well, that would certainly solve the Social Security problem, and it has precedent. Leave the old folks out in the desert to die.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:01:32 +0000

Thinking about it, humans are to be considered as the ultimate pest both in numbers and behaviour. If there would be a “superior” species they would be after us like we are after the rats. That’s why, if a superior race would come to Earth, they’d be on our asses.

By: Donna

Donna — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:10:52 +0000

Disease, birth rate, life span – pishaw! It was the nature of the beast that destroyed the Neanderthal….and the “beast” was modern humans!

By: Roger

Roger — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:05:33 +0000

It seems to me that an obvious possibility is not mentioned in this article. How about a disease that infected all of us, but which was only fatal to the Neanderthal?

By: amphiox

amphiox — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:34:49 +0000

Maybe it was control of fire.

Every human species since H. erectus at the least could control fire.

The dates may not fit together very neatly

No they don’t at all. We’re talking a discrepancy of almost 20 000 years, almost twice as long as the entire period for which we actually have evidence of agricultural activity of any kind.

By: Ganesha

Ganesha — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:46:11 +0000

All of this is well and good but it seems much more likely that Homo neanderthalensis suffered from a technological disadvantage that led to their demise. Homo sapiens had something that they did not. Maybe it was control of fire. More likely it was an advantage in food acquisition or production, such as rudimentary domestication of animals and/or plants. The dates may not fit together very neatly, but Neanderthal extinction would have taken at least several hundred years while the development of basic pre-agricultural practices would have taken thousands of years to manifest in the historical record. Such cultural advances have allowed various homo sapiens groups to eliminate one another many times throughout the course of history, even without the use of violent aggression. Couldn’t this pattern possibly extend back to a “conflict” Neanderthals and ancient humans?

By: Georg

Georg — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:12:46 +0000

One has to include fertility and
life expectancy of newbornes for a complete picture.
Newbornes bones are much less likely to be
preserved.
Georg