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Three Neanderthal Sub-groups Confirmed


Guest Nicholas

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Guest Nicholas

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — The Neanderthals inhabited a vast geographical area extending from Europe to western Asia and the Middle East 30,000 to 100,000 years ago. Now, a group of researchers are questioning whether or not the Neanderthals constituted a homogenous group or separate sub-groups (between which slight differences could be observed).

Find the article HERE!

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"Sub groups"...

What, exactly, are they getting at?

Any population that is geographically isolated will, over time, differentiate.

Have they never heard of the Galapagos?

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I don't know much about their methodology, but how can you predict four distinct subgroups with only 12 samples, presumably taken over various times? They have to be making a lot of assumptions, based on what the article said. That of course, could be much different then what is actually written. Unfortnanlty, appears to be a French journal, and the only language I speak is red-neck.

ashcraft, brent allen

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Hmmmm.............Three sub groups......Moe, Larry and Curly? :P

Be true to the reality you create.

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Guest Nicholas

From what I've heard from asking around my other communities, they believe that the subgroups have genetic distinctions... like auspex said isolation will do that.. but they hadn't thought of it before. Perhaps a large Duh! moment.

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"Sub groups"...

What, exactly, are they getting at?

Any population that is geographically isolated will, over time, differentiate.

Have they never heard of the Galapagos?

ooh, i want to differentiate! pick me!

p.s. - i didn't know the galapa were gone. where'd the galapa go?

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ooh, i want to differentiate! pick me!

p.s. - i didn't know the galapa were gone. where'd the galapa go?

You're already...different.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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From what I've heard from asking around my other communities, they believe that the subgroups have genetic distinctions... like auspex said isolation will do that.. but they hadn't thought of it before. Perhaps a large Duh! moment.

The problem is that they have to make the assumption that the fragments they are looking at are from a "normal" individual, I don't think you can make that assumption. What if the reason that these fragments were found is because they were from "abnormal" individuals, so they didn't go through the same burial practice (if they had any). Human origin is a fascinating study, but we base a lot of what we think on very few specimens. I have heard it said that all of the fossils of human ancestors would fit in the back of a pickup. That isn't much data to draw general conclusions from.

Brent Ashcraft

ashcraft, brent allen

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