Showing posts with label Neanderthal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neanderthal. Show all posts

Human mathematical intelligence came from Neanderthals, while the Cro-Magnons had the social skills

She was linking genes for advanced mental skills to Neanderthals. "I'm confused," I said when she paused for a breath. "You're correlating genes linked to modern human intelligence with Neanderthal populations. What am I missing?"

"You didn't want to hear me, I knew that."

"No, I want to hear you. I just asked a question."

"You don't, because I already told you."



I looked at Beth blankly, realizing I was missing a key part of the puzzle. "You said these were Neanderthal genes?"

"Yes, they were," she said. "They weren't in the modern human genome until Neanderthals interbred with Cro-Magnons between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago."

"Advanced mathematical processing? Shouldn't that have been missing from the Neanderthal genome?"

"No, I found that Neanderthals lacked genes linked to successful socialization and management skills. They could count perfectly well, but they couldn't deal with groups. Socialization genes came from Sapiens"

"You're trying to tell me ..." I said, but my mental censor blocked the idea.

"That human mathematical intelligence came from Neanderthals? That's what the data say. The Cro-Magnons had the social skills. But that isn't all."

I stared at her. I couldn't tell that to the research council.

As usual, she couldn't read the warning look on my face. "The hybridization was successful in the Stone Age, but the environment has changed. I found that modern culture selects for socialization but against the Neanderthal traits for mathematics and intelligence," she said, and looked down. "I don't know how you'll survive when our genes are gone."


Read More at nature.com:

The Neanderthal correlation
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7194/full/453562a.html

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Neanderthals at Nerja

View of the inside of the Nerja Cave


Three flint tools dated from 40,000 years ago confirms that the Nerja Cave (Málaga province in Spain) was inhabited by the Neanderthal man.

A group of Spanish anthropologists have been looking at items removed from the famous tourist attraction some 20 years ago, and affirmed that there is no doubt about the evidence.

The tools date from the middle Palaeolithic period and are part of 151,588 items which have been newly classified.

Neanderthal fossils and associated materials have been found all over Spain, such as at Bañolas (Girona) and Cova Negra (Valencia).
Fully developed Neanderthals, some represented by well-preserved skulls, come from more than 10 different localities throughout Spain, including Los Casares, Carigüela, Gabasa, and Zafarraya, with a cluster in Gibraltar (Forbe's Quarry, Gorham's Cave, and La Genista).
Mountainous ranges South of Spain provided with natural caves, many of which were at times occupied by Neanderthals during the Late Pleistocene Epoch (approximately 130,000 to 10,000 years ago).

Nerja Cave Website

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Neandertal Learning Materials and Scholarly articles

Neandertal Learning Materials:

Scholarly articles on Neandertal:


The robust composite skeleton of a Neandertal (left) is unmistakably different from that of a modern human (right). G.J. Sawyer and Blaine Maley

Credit: Ken Mowbray and Blaine Maley, American Museum of Natural History.


Staff completing sequencing projects at the 454 Sequencing Center located in Branford, CT. Source: 454 Life Sciences.


Due to sample contamination, the task of sequencing the Neandertal genome is much more extensive than the task of sequencing the human genome. 454 Life Sciences' Genome Sequencer 20 System makes such an endeavor feasible by allowing approximately a quarter of a million single DNA strands from small amounts of bone to be sequenced in only about five hours by a single machine.

Source: 454 Life Sciences.


Exploring the Genetic Code of the Neanderthal

Listen to this story...

Talk of the Nation, November 17, 2006 ·
Scientists have sequenced DNA from one of humans' closest relatives, the Neanderthal.
Guests examine what that prehistoric genetic code might tell us about how these early hominids lived, and why they became extinct.
Can the genetic code also answer the question of whether Neanderthals and modern humans interbred?

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Los Últimos Neandertales

Estamos en el año 25.000 antes de Jesucristo.
Toda Europa está ocupada por los Cro-Mañones ...
¿Toda? !No!
Varias aldeas pobladas por irreductibles Neandertales resiste, invicta siempre al invasor.

La invasión se ha producido de una forma insidiosa,pero altamente efectiva.
Los Homínidos que un día aparecieron a las puertas orientales del territorio Neandertal y que atrajeron la curiosidad de los Neandros, por su elevada estatura y carencia de pelo, comenzaron a despertar desde bien pronto todo tipo de recelos.
Por alguna razón misteriosa, todos aquellos Neandros que mantenían relaciones cercanas con los recién llegados, morían tras una rápida e incurable enfermedad.

Eran unos tipos raros estos Cro-Magnones.
Aunque mucho más avanzados que los Neandros en cuestiones de Agricultura y Vivienda, su organización social consistía de núcleos familiares, con parejas ocupando su propia tierra y casa junto a otras parejas en el mismo estado, algo que a los Neandertales se les antojaba harto estúpido y poco práctico.

Pero a pesar con una estructura unifamiliar, los recién llegados también tenían la repudiable costumbre de practicar sexo con todo tipo de animales, incluidos los propios Neandros.
Para la Sociedad Neandertal, este tipo de relaciones eran totalmente inaceptables y cuando los miembros del clan que habían sucumbido a los encantos Cro-Mañones comenzaron a morir, víctimas de un virus proveniente del Macaco Rhesus, los druidas Neandertales inmediatamente lo achacaron a un Castigo de los Dioses.

La Sociedad Neandertal, que tan abierta y tolerante en temas sexuales había sido hasta entonces, cayó en una época de oscurantismo, una especie de Edad Media Paleolítica, donde se impusieron normas estrictas para evitar sucesivos contagios.
La mejor forma de evitar encuentros con los Cromaños era huir a las montañas, donde aún existían algunas poblaciones de Neandros no contaminados.

Sin embargo, los retoños nacidos de la unión entre ambas especies, al igual que sus padres Cro-Mañones, si eran inmunes a dicho virus.
Además, como siempre ocurre en la Naturaleza con los híbridos fértiles, estaban dotados con lo mejor de ambas especies, lo que les hacía superiores en fuerza e inteligencia a ambas especies, además de resistentes a un mayor número de enfermedades.

Y pronto se dieron cuenta de que era muy fácil combatir, ganar y saquear a los otros homínidos "puros", a quienes en menos de 5.000 años habían totalmente desbancado o asimilado.

Los Neandros huidos a la montaña permanecieron allí durante unos cuantos miles de años, hasta que el último empujón Híbrido les obligó a integrarse definitivamente.
Pero no a todos.
Un pequeño contingente se echo a la mar y consiguió llegar a costas británicas, aún impolutas de Cro-Mañones.
Otros pequeños grupúsculos permanecieron aislados y escondidos en Palestina, Croacia, Serranía de Ronda y montañas Bizcainas.
Fue en este último lugar donde más arraigo la creencia de que los invasores eran en realidad un cruce de mono y simio, y por lo tanto carentes de valores humanos.
Creencia que sirvió para fundar las bases del Partido Político que gobierna en la actualidad el País Vasco y que aún hoy día se enseña solapadamente en las escuelas vascas.

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Enhanced Human Brain as a result Interbreeding Between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals

A new study by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Chicago shows strong evidence of how interbreeding between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals have introduced a gene variant into the human population that enhanced human brain function,

The research was published online during the week of November 6, 2006, in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and suggests that human evolution was not just a matter of spontaneous advantageous mutations arising within the human lineage.
Human evolution may also have been influenced by interbreeding with other Homo species, which introduced gene variants, known as alleles, that are beneficial to human reproductive fitness.

Bruce T. Lahn, study's senior author, at Howard Hughes Medical Institute said that:

“By no means do these findings constitute definitive proof that a Neanderthal was the source of the original copy of the D allele. However, our evidence shows that it is one of the best candidates.”
The scientists said they have developed the most robust genetic evidence to date that suggests humans and Neanderthals interbred when they existed together thousands of years ago. The interbreeding hypothesis contrasts with at least one prominent theory that posits that no interbreeding occurred when the two species encountered one another.

In their studies performed a detailed statistical analysis of the DNA sequence structure of the gene microcephalin, which is known to play a role in regulating brain size in humans. Mutations in the human gene cause development of a much smaller brain, a condition called microcephaly.

Previous work by Lahn’s team has shown that there are two distinct groups of microcephalin alleles (versions of the gene), called the D alleles and the non-D alleles. The genes in the D alleles group have very similar DNA sequences, and arose from the amplification of a single ancestral gene approximately 37,000 years ago, which then increased in frequency rapidly and are now present in about 70 percent of the world's population. This rapid rise in frequency indicates that the D alleles underwent positive selection in the recent history of humans.
This means that these alleles conferred a fitness advantage on those who possessed one of them such that these people had slightly higher reproductive success than people who didn't possess the alleles, said Lahn.

The estimate that all modern copies of the D alleles descended from a single progenitor copy about 37,000 years ago is based on the measurement of sequence difference between different copies of the D alleles. As a copy of a gene is passed from one generation to the next, mutations are introduced at a steady rate, such that a certain number of generations later, the descendant copies of the gene would on average vary from one another in DNA sequence by a certain amount. The greater the number of the generations, the more DNA sequence difference there would be between two descendant copies.
The amount of sequence difference between different copies of a gene can therefore be used to estimate the amount of evolutionary time that has elapsed since the two copies descended from their common progenitor.

In the new studies reported in PNAS, the researchers performed detailed sequence comparisons between the D alleles and the non-D alleles of microcephalin. The scientists determined that these two classes of alleles have likely evolved in two separate lineages for about 1.1 million years — with the non-D alleles having evolved in the Homo sapiens lineage and the D alleles having evolved in an archaic, and now extinct, Homo lineage. Then, about 37,000 years ago, a copy of the D allele crossed from the archaic Homo lineage into humans, possibly by interbreeding between members of the two populations. This copy subsequently spread in humans from a single copy when it first crossed into humans to an allele that is now present in an estimated 70 percent of the population worldwide today.

The estimate of 1.1 million years that separates the two lineages is based on the amount of sequence difference between the D and the non-D alleles. Although the identity of this archaic Homo lineage is yet to be determined, the researchers argue that a likely candidate is the Neanderthals. The 1.1 million year separation between humans and this archaic Homo species is roughly consistent with previous estimates of the amount of evolutionary time separating the Homo sapiens lineage and the Neanderthal lineage, said Lahn. Furthermore, the time of introgression of the D allele into humans — about 37,000 years ago — is when humans and Neanderthals coexisted in many parts of the world.

Lahn said the group's data suggest that the interbreeding was unlikely to be a thorough genetic mixing, but rather a rare - and perhaps even a single — event that introduced the ancestral D allele previously present in this other Homo species into the human line.

“By no means do these findings constitute definitive proof that a Neanderthal was the source of the original copy of the D allele. However, our evidence shows that it is one of the best candidates. The timeline, including the introgression of the allele into humans 37,000 years ago and its origin in a lineage that separated with the human line 1.1 million years ago, agrees with the contact between, and the evolutionary history of, Neanderthals and humans.

“And a third line of evidence, albeit weaker, is that the D alleles are much more prevalent in Eurasia and lower in sub-Saharan Africa, which is consistent with an origin in the former area. And we know that Neanderthals evolved outside of Africa,”
said Lahn.

Lahn also said that although the disruption of the microcephalin gene in humans leads to smaller brains, the role of the D alleles in brain evolution remains unknown.
“The D alleles may not even change brain size; they may only make the brain a bit more efficient if it indeed affects brain function. For example, someone inheriting the D allele may have only a slightly more efficient brain on average. While that enhancement might confer only a subtle evolutionary advantage on that person, when that effect is propagated over a thousand generations of natural selection, the result will be to drive the D alleles to a very high prevalence.”

Lahn and his colleagues believe that other genes might well show similar telltale signs of an origin in archaic Homo lineages such as Neanderthals. They are currently using their analytical tool to search for evidence of that origin for other genes in the human genome.

Such findings may have broader implications for understanding human evolution than just revealing the possibility of human-Neanderthal interbreeding, he said.
“In addition to being perhaps the most robust genetic evidence for introgression of genes from archaic Homo species into humans, I think this finding demonstrates that the evolution of our species has been profoundly impacted by gene flow from our relative species. Finding evidence of mixing is not all that surprising. But our study demonstrates the possibility that interbreeding contributed advantageous variants into the human gene pool that subsequently spread. This implies that the evolution of human biology has been affected by the contribution of advantageous genetic variants from archaic relatives that we have replaced or even killed off,”
Until now, said Lahn, the scientific debate over genetic exchange between humans and other Homo species has led to two prominent competing theories. One holds that anatomically modern humans replaced archaic species, with no interbreeding. And the other states that extensive interbreeding did take place and that modern humans evolved from that interbreeding in many regions of the world.

The multiregional hypothesis for the human species holds that the evolution of humanity throughout the Pleistocene has been within a single widespread human species, Homo sapiens, in response to the normal forces of evolution: selection, mutation, genetic drift, and gene flow. Genetic and fossil evidence for this theory has been inconclusive, so that the theory has been largely discredited.
However, the newer evidence of gene exchange — as well as other genetic evidence that might follow — could give rise to a more moderate version holding that some genetic exchange did take place, and however interbreeding between the two lineages species may have been rare, might have been enough to transfer a copy of the microcephalin gene to Homo sapiens, which then became widespread throughout the human population and continued to evolve.

Dramatic increase in brain size and complexity during human evolution

PhotoThe foreground shows brain images of human, macaque monkey, rat, and mouse (from top to bottom), as well as the phylogenetic relationship among these four taxa. The background shows DNA sequences. Brain complexity has increased dramatically in primates relative to rodents, and the increase is particularly pronounced in the lineage leading to humans. At the molecular level, genes involved in nervous system function also show accelerated rates of evolution in primates, especially in the lineage leading to humans. Thus, the dramatic phenotypic evolution of the brain in the origin of Homo sapiens is correlated with salient molecular evolution.


Source:
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

External Links:
Evidence that the adaptive allele of the brain size gene microcephalin introgressed into Homo sapiens from an archaic Homo lineage
Neanderthals & humans may have interbred
Neanderthal Introgression
Neanderthal Brains: mp3 lecture by Bruce Lahn
Microcephalin

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The Last of the Neanderthal

Geology indicates that there has been a direct tectonic connection between Europe and Africa across the zones of Gibraltar and Rif on the one hand, and Calabria and Sicily on the other, at least since the end of the Paleozoic, contradicting plate-tectonic claims of significant displacement between Europe and Africa during this period.

By 6 million years ago, Spain and Africa collided, raising a mountain barrier and sealing off the western end of the Mediterranean. River inflow is not enough to maintain the level of the Mediterranean, which dries out.


It is widely believed that H. erectus originally migrated from Africa during the Early Pleistocene, around 2.0 million years ago, and dispersed throughout most of the Old World, reaching as far as Southeast Asia.
But there were already another race of H. erectus habitating Europe. In fact they were lost ancestors, that got separated when both continents ripped apart.
The Gibraltar Strait was now open and they couldn't migrate South to Africa like they undoubtedly used to do when both continents wre connected.
They were Neanderthals, and they had evolved adapting to the rough environment. And so, they started to grow hair to fend off the cold, and adapted to bush or jungle conditions, hence his shorter average height.
Cro-Magnon evolved on open plains, hence his tallness, his long-sightness, and right-handness.
No need for hair either, when living in warm climates.

A vey large portion of the Neanderthal population perished in Poseidonis, an island about the size of Ireland, situated in the Atlantic Ocean opposite the strait of Gibraltar, that sank in a major cataclysm in 9565 BC.
Geologist Christian O'Brien believes that Poseidonis was a large mid-Atlantic ridge island centred on the Azores, that had originally measured 720 km across from east to west, and 480 km from north to south, with high mountain ranges rising over 3660 metres above sea level. Before or during its submergence, it tilted by about 0.4° with the result that the south coast sank about 3355 metres but the north coast only some 1830 metres. Only the mountain peaks remained above the waters, and now form the ten islands of the Azores. O'Brien thinks the island could have sunk within a period of a few years or even months, and points out that six areas of hot spring fields (associated with volcanic disturbances) are known in the mid-Atlantic ridge area, and four of them lie in the Kane-Atlantis area close to the Azores.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/sunken.htm

The rest of the European Neanderthals were wiped out in a relatively short period of time. They vanished at exactly the same time that Cro-Magnon started to colonize Europe, bringing along lethal sexual transmitted diseases.

But the last ones that could interbred with the new-comers did pass on their genes and produced hybrids that are today's Iberians.
And British...
People of Celtic ancestry were thought to have descended from tribes of central Europe. Professor Sykes, who is soon to publish the first DNA map of the British Isles, said: "About 6,000 years ago Iberians developed ocean-going boats that enabled them to push up the Channel.
Before they arrived, there were some human inhabitants of Britain but only a few thousand in number. These people were later subsumed into a larger Celtic tribe... The majority of people in the British Isles are actually descended from the Spanish."

If you look at History, you'll see that both countries, Spain and Britain, have conquered about every corner of the world. Many would argue that this is a symbol of lack of humanity, but the truth is that 500 years ago any country would have tried to expand their borders and only the ones with available military force could do it. It happens even in today's civilized world.
Although the main objective clearly was looting, both countries also made an effort to export their beliefs to the conquered territories, Spain in the form of religion, and Britain as cultural assets.

If two small nations like Spain and Britain had agreed to join their forces, they will now control Planet Earth.
Instead they chose to fight each other.
Typically Neandertalish.

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Neanderthal vs. Cro-Magnon

Once upon a time there was a human race on Planet Earth, ruled by women and driven by sex.

A human society with a fully structured social behavior that worshiped Goddess Moon and Goddess Nature.
Everything was shared within communal groups led by the most outstanding female individuals.
A clan that actually cared and provided for their youngest, elderly or ill.

And they must've been quite a valorous bunch, because they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of the group, as shown by the numerous bone fractures found on fossil remains, the result of intense fighting with awesome predators that trespassed their territory.

That society was the kind of social utopia that under today's conventional set of values, would likely be labeled as the wildest dream of a deranged feminist or a radical communist.

However, it all actually happened more than 100,000 years ago, and it went on that way uninterruptedly for a period lasting at least 50,000 years.

Although Neanderthal fossil evidence can be traced back as far back as hundreds of thousands years ago, it wasn't “only” until about 130,000 years ago, when they did fully evolve into what can be defined as human. At that time they began to spread across the European continent and by 80,000 years ago were occupying the whole area comprising Turkey and places of Western Asia all the way West to the Iberian Peninsula.

Then, about 45,000 years ago, another race of hominids came into the European scene. Out of Africa, the anthropoids currently believed to be our true human ancestors, had started to take positions at the Western Asian part of the Neanderthal range.

They were taller, less hairy and stayed away from promiscuousness, living usually within a family nucleus and occupying a portion of land that was not open for sharing with anyone else. During the next 10,000 to 15,000 years, they kept expanding on northward and westward throughout all of Europe.
By the time the Cro-Magnons had accomplished the outspread in Europe, the Neanderthal people had completely vanished, leaving no fossil trace as to why or how.
They just seem to have disappeared in a very short period of time, never to be seen again in History.
But did they really vanished just like that?

From what we know out of anthropological data, both races coexisted in many areas during long periods of time. Strangely enough, no fossil evidence has been found of any kind of racial wars between the two distinct races.

Scientists nowadays, argue on whether interbreeding ever took place between the two races.
I am no scientist, but to put things into perspective, we need to take into account that all throughout History there's been copious evidence involving descendants of the most superior and civilized Cro-Magnon race, inflicting forced sex upon chickens, goats, horses, snakes and just about anything that moves, from several animal species, including fish or insects, plus more than a few episodes involving members of the Vegetable Kingdom.
It won't be too far off to think then, that there could have been some kind of interbreeding during the more than 10,000 years both races shared habitats. In fact, I am absolutely convinced that members from both races engaged in monumental orgies.

Neanderthals, being as they were, took the concept of community to the limit and surely must have lured at least some of the more reserved Cro-Magnons into their “open-minded” life-style.
Neanderthal society was communal, matriarchal and completely promiscuous, led by women and driven by sex (just as it happens in modern Spanish society and others from parts of Southern Europe, no matter what you've been told to believe).
On the other hand, Cro-Magnon communities followed the opposite set of rules. They were based upon the not very realistic idea of one partner for life, on a defined small piece of territory adjacent to other similar pairs. But since they had such a strong craving for conquering and looting, surely those activities must've lead to some raping as well, which opened another way for gene-crossing.
Or maybe, they got along just fine, made good friends and invited each other over on weekends to BBQ some mammoth hamburgers, how the heck should i know.
In any case, 10,000 years being close neighbors is a lot of time to seriously claim they didn't have sex with each other.

It was precisely that “open-minded” way of life together with their nomadness (again my own personal guess) what ultimately produced the demise of the Neanderthal population.
Some kind of sexually transmitted disease must have spread rapidly throughout the different communities, no-one having the type of medical training necessary to identify that unknown disease and its means of transmission.

And where that disease could have originated from?
Again, in my own uneducated opinion, the fact that the disease might have arrived at the same time that the Cro-Magnon people did, does not speak very well of the latest sex habits
As I said, examples of Cro-Magnons having sex with other species are plentiful, and that could have developed a new disease that was to spread globally killing millions. Just a wild guess that does not affect the original premise.

This exposition of facts may be considered as blasphemy by most anthropologists, but how else could you explain the complete vanishing without trace of a human race that had survived and successfully adapted throughout all kinds of climatic upheavals and fought off all kinds of terrifying predators for nothing less than 250,000 years.? Prove me wrong, please.

But why didn't the disease affect the Cro-Magnon people to the same extent, then?
Well, it surely must have affected them, but no to the same extent.
Being the original carriers they surely must've been able to identify and isolate the illness away from their communities. And thanks to their “one partner for life” way of life, most couples could have stayed away from unhealthy relationships.
After many generations had passed, people would have unconsciously started to gather empiric statistical data on people getting sick and their sexual habits, arriving to the conclusion that the “right” thing to do was to stay home with his/her partner and don't fool around. Does it sound familiar?

But the most intriguing thing is that precisely at the same time when all this pandemic and physiologic fluids exchange was undoubtedly taking place between the two races, there comes along a major technological and spiritual revolution, the first that mankind was to witness, one that was to be known as "The Human Revolution".
Previous to that encounter, neither Neanderthals nor Cro-Magnons could have met the standards required to qualify as “modern” humans.
Excuse again my lack of anthropologist training, but all this just cannot be coincidental.

But why were the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon so different from each other?
That's an easy one to figure out:
Neanderthal evolved originally in bush or jungle conditions, hence his shorter average height (5' 4''), whereas Cro-Magnon evolved on open plains, hence his tallness. (average 5' 10'') and that he was appropriately long-sighted, and right-handed.

Other distinctive physical features of the Neanderthal people included prominent eyebrows and brow ridges, a larger cerebellum, nearsightedness and a higher incidence of left-handedness.
And though they presented similar or even bigger cranial capacity as today's humans, on the average they seemed to posses a lower average IQ, as measured by Cro-Magnonian standards, that is.
Recent findings at Neanderthal excavation sites have brought out what is indisputably a flute, carved out of a bone. Music is undoubtedly one of the most elevated characteristics of human intelligence equal or higher than language, which must have obviously existed, then.
And if there was music, then there was dance. Throw in a few “magic” herbs and there you have all the ingredients needed to hold big social gatherings, i.e., big parties, that surely ended up in uninhibited orgies where women were in full control of the protocol.

Another of the distinct features that differentiated both races was the length of their big and second toe.
All Neanderthal fossil feet and footprints have been found to have the big toe shorter than the second toe. And all Cro-Magnon fossil feet and footprints found have been found to have the big toe longer than the second toe.
All, without exceptions.
Now, go to a public swimming pool and risk being taken for some kind of pervert. But after carefully watching, you'll see my point. It's a paleoanthropologist's nightmare. A collection of toes of all kinds of lengths and types that don't really correspond to the anthropological bodily appearance of the holders. Even within members of the same family, you can observe different toes' lengths and disposition.

This is not a banal issue. Paleoanthropologists argue that modern genes "derive exclusively" from the African ancestors of modern humans, and not from Neanderthals, based on genetic studies practiced on a few Neanderthal fossils.
But other anthropologists, contend that modern humans actually carry at least some genes of Neanderthals mixed in with their own.

It would be simplistic and easier to the mind to think that our Cro-Magnons ancestors were just better fitted for survival, and therefore we were the “chosen one” race, that overtook the ape-like Neanderthals.
Anyone who has visited Europe (specially the Mediterranean) has inevitably come across human specimens high on Neanderthal genes. North and South America have their share also, and the African and Asian continents hold sparse communities of almost pure Neanderthals and hybrids.
Carleton Coon dived into that unfortunate comparison in what he called the "Alpha and Omega" of living humans in his book The Origin of Races. Coon, also memorably remarked that a cleaned-up and soberly dressed Neanderthal would hardly merit a second glance on the New York subway.

When animal and plant breeders cross different species of plants and animals the resulting hybrid offspring has qualities and characteristics possessed by neither parent. This outcome is known as ‘hybrid vigor’.
But such vigor does not come along without some nasty side-effects, because it is also a well-known biological fact that when divergent species of animals are crossed, the offspring frequently show unstable behavior derived from the conflicting sets of instincts inherited from both parents.
And in the case of humans, that interbreeding between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon must have produced two completely different sets of behavioral patterns, each one having found its own place in different sides of the brain. That would explain many aspects of the so-called “split-brain” theory.
And in that aspect, humans are also unique. No other animal can specialize each of their brain sides to perform different tasks, not at least to the degree we do, no matter how much training is provided.

So we all have a Neanderthal living in us, usually controlling the right side of our brains, but nonetheless, tradition and fashion dictates the Cro-Magnon type as the model to be followed, whether it'd be in fashion, movies or politics. Everyone thrives to have a tall, athletic figure. And almost everyone needs to follow a set of rules to live their lives coherently within modern societies. Or so we've been made to believe.

As it has been said, being tall and big is a very convenient body shape if you happen to live on open plains, but anywhere else it turns you into an oversized clumsy animal. In today's world, the larger you are the more bound you are to meet all kinds of missadaptation problems. Just ask any basketball player about it. And that's not going to get any better in the foreseeable future.

But this is 2006 B.C., and being so new, humans as a whole are still so fascinated by the Cro-Magnonian life-style.
And the way we humans lead ourselves by nowadays is that whenever there's an interest, a market is rapidly developed to provide for it.
And once there is a market, it doesn't matter anymore whether the ideology behind it is outdated or wrong, because the beast is alive on its own and is constantly growing and asking to be fed.
That's the way Cro-Magnonian Capitalist Market works.
And that's why there's a conspiracy to promote even further the Cro-Magnon cause.
And I know they're after me for writing this post. They even hijacked my computer to certify the reports they were getting from their mentalists about a quasi-Neanderthal man discovering The First Truth. But I managed to sneak it in. And if they try to endanger my life now, they'll appear as prime suspects. So, I'm safe for the time being.

I consider myself to be quite Neanderthalish. I've got many of the physical traits, politically speaking I'd choose Left over Right any day of the week plus I have a secret fetish for women in dominant roles, so I must be one of them.
Besides, I understand no other intelligent way of human association than helping each other.
And I am a nomad, whether I like it or not.
And guess what. Neanderthals are more prone to paranoia and other ailments of the soul than Cro-Magnons are.

I also do posses more than my share of Cro-Magnon traits, such as an insane passion for technology or innate programming skills.
And there's nothing I dislike more than some human parasite trying to live off my work in order to improve his/her living standards. I also believe in private property to an extent, and my wife is not up for grabs, sorry.




Furthermore my IQ of 145 is superior to that of most Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons alike. I got these measurements made in Australia, the country largely inhabited by the descendants of a misplaced community of European Cro-Magnon outcasts.
I arrived there in 1985, and my knowledge of the official English language was in need of vastly improvement, to put it kindly.
In spite of that, it didn't prevent me from coming up first by several legs at a test held to recruit possible candidates for a series of government subsidized computer programs. To me the test appeared to be more about common sense than anything else, really, and I went all through it non-stop, ticking away the obvious answers.
The results showed an IQ so high that prompted General Manager to come all the way from Melbourne headquarters to Sydney just to interview me. At least that's what I was told.
When I was first introduced to him, he looked sort of disappointed. He was clearly the Cro-Magnon type and was probably expecting to meet someone akin.
The conversation that followed has to be a classic of my experiences when dealing with all sorts of Cro-Magnon trained managers:
He looked me up and down and quickly went to the point informing me that it was to my best interest to spend approximately the next 3 to 5 years of my life subsidized studying FORTRAN and COBOL.
I thanked him, but pointed out that the real reason for applying was because I wanted to take one of the other courses available, and become a technician (that's where the meat is).
He implied he knew better than my own self about what were my best options.
I replied that if he was talking to me in the first place was because he thought I was smart. And if I was smart enough, then I should be able to decide about my own future.
That was the end of it, he didn't even let me apply for the technicians' course.
From information gathered later from former students of those primitive programming languages, I had made the right choice. One of them assured me it was far more complex than learning Chinese, but far less useful and gratifying. And he was fluent in both languages.

My more developed Neanderthal cerebellum also provides for some kind of unconventional intelligence, that gifts me with the ability, for example, to clearly identify patterns that would pass completely unnoticed by people high on Cro-Magnon genes.
How come, for example, that a whole nation so Cro-Magnonish as Germany, could have let themselves be tricked into an absurd ideology about a superior Arial race and further on into a world war, by someone like Hitler, himself a Neanderthal man posing as Cro-Magnon, who happened to be exactly the opposite image of an Aryan race specimen?.
Let me tell you, that little phony man would have not deceived shit off me, not even for half a second.

And I know that you're thinking of Franco now, the latest Spanish dictator, but that was a completely different thing. That was Cro-Magnonian Might (into which Nazi Germany actively contributed) crushing down by means of a destructive superior force, a popular Neanderthal-inspired freedom social movement.

It's the Neanderthal in me who is writing this post. Because, you see, my Neanderthal side can only express itself meaningfully in English. When it tries to do so in Spanish it makes little or no sense at all.
However, the Cro-Magnon in me loves using Spanish, probably because of its better order and structure (although he's fluent and meaningful in both languages).
I've got empiric proof that shows that the Neanderthal in me has taken refuge at the right side of my brain, which is the wrong side for an english-speaking Neanderthal (or english-speaking Cromagnon for that matter) to dwell in. But that was the only place it could fit, since there was no room left at the left side of my brain, entirely taken by my spanish education and its overwhelming cultural legacy.

I grew up in a country where as recent as half a century ago, left-handed pupils had their “good” hand tied up at their backs in order to force them to write using their “right” hand.
If there's a country where Left and Right collide in every sense, that's Spain. Just take a quick look at its dwindling History.

Spain could be defined as Neanderthal territory governed by strict and outdated Cro-Magnonian traditional ways.

For whatever the reasons, the Neanderthals' last redoubt thus seems to have been in Iberia, South and West of the Ebro. It is relevant here that while in certain other regions, Neanderthals of the 36-33 kyr period appear to have acquired some of the Cro-Magnons' behavioral attributes by acculturation, there is no evidence for this happening beyond the "Ebro line", where abrupt cultural replacement appears to have been the rule.
The last of the Neanderthal that survived and interbred with the Cro-Magnon did pass on their genes and produced hybrids that are today's Iberians. And British ...
Up to recent times, people of Celtic ancestry were thought to have descended from tribes of central Europe. Nothing further from the truth.Professor Sykes, who is soon to publish the first DNA map of the British Isles, said: "About 6,000 years ago Iberians developed ocean-going boats that enabled them to push up the Channel.
Before they arrived, there were some human inhabitants of Britain but only a few thousand in number. These people were later subsumed into a larger Celtic tribe ...
The majority of people in the British Isles are actually descended from the Spanish."
http://www.independent.co.uk

If you look at History, you'll see how hybrids from both countries, Spain and Britain, have defeated all other "pure" races and conquered about every corner of the world. And still had time to fiercely fight each other. Hybrid vigor.

There are still traditions in Spain that remind us of those ancient communal ways. The most representative is the custom to offer one's food to the rest of the people around you, sharing it with everybody if accepted. That's quite Neanderthal-like, I would say, and not a custom to be practiced almost anywhere else.

I left my country behind when I was 21, and headed for English-speaking Cro-Magnonian lands. I was utterly fascinated by their pragmatism, the directness and practicality of their language, together with their “non-bullshit” approach to things that really matter in a selfish life. So, for quite a few years, and in order to develop an acceptable set of language abilities, I immersed into every aspect of truly Cro-Magnonian societies, by living, working and breathing their culture for over 7 years, not ever going back to my homeland, neither writing back to friends and family that much, mostly because it did put me off my track and off my head.
I was so determined that I even shun away any contact with most of the spanish speaking travelers I'd occasionally met, and the truth is that I didn't miss it all that much.
At one point I even considered to overwrite the whole of my left side with the newly acquired English mentality. Today I'm so glad that I didn't.

All these traits are clearly Cro-Magnonish, but as I said, I had more than enough of that kind of mentality, with probably more than 75% of my brain occupied by egocentric ideas.
So I had to make the triple effort of learning a new language, accommodate it in a side that clearly was not its natural habitat to be in, and on top of that, make use of it to express my Neandertalish views.
I mostly use Spanish to express my Cro-Magnonian views, and that's plenty, thank you.
Luckily, more pragmatic English language allows for that kind of acrobatics that Spanish does not.
That's why I never succeed in properly translating what I write. None of what I'm writing would make much sense in Spanish. Vice versa sometimes, but not always.

If I am considered to be an odd character in the States, it's even worse in Spain, where I've been asked a worrying number of times whether I come from outer space (and I'm not kidding now).
To help you get the picture, Spain is the kind of place where Stephen Hawking would probably have gotten beaten up for being such a smart-aleck.
To be honest, the country has changed a lot during the past 30 years or so, but the remains of hundred years of Spanish Inquisition plus 40 recent years of imposed ignorance and fear are still deeply rooted in its culture and it certainly shows. I calculate that it will take at least 2-3 generations to get rid of those bad Cro-Magnon habits, if that ever happens.
The current system education of choice (a.k.a. The Box), is not helping either. Spaniards are very fond of indulging in watching TV programs primarily designed to sell worthless products and promote ignorance. A run-down version of professional Cro-Magnonian media.

My Cro-Magnonian side is now telling me not to veer off and conclude at once.
No one can refute the fact that the Cro-Magnon mind-set has been the prime accountable for most of the technical gadgetry some of us enjoy today. And no one will deny (or almost no one) taking proper advantage of that technology to improve the quality of their lives.
And the truth is that it's been real “fun” for a several-thousand-of-years while, with all those bloody wars, which in turn spurred phenomenal advances in weaponry, communications or medicine.
But now the time for change is overdue. This egocentric Cro-Magnon mentality has pushed the natural resources of our planet beyond their limits and is driving us fast-forward towards our own self destruction.
Even if we're just meaning to be selfish, we still are in great need of a major mentality shift.
We need to get back to our Neanderthal roots and start caring for each other again, at least until we have properly digested all the technical advances falling and looming upon us.
And we must do this as fast as possible, because maybe it's already too late.


More Info:

Hybrid-origin
Human evolution
The Way We Are
Cities of Dreams – Stan Gooch
The Dream Culture of the Neanderthals
Cro-Magnon Man and the Bible
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

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