The article I read cited just a few known Neanderthal parents affecting humans, about 40 if I remember correctly.

While we've been inclined to look down our noses at the Neanderthals, figuring them almost sub-human ... I heard a broadcast a while ago that said that they were much more capable than we'd previously given them credit for.

ole joyful

I was looking a skull from some cave they dug up, it was supposed to be a human skull but yet their teeth were much different than our teeth. They had no canine teeth and all their teeth were flat and more like the shape of horse teeth. That would make them true herbivores which we are not. So many mysteries in the evolution of man I tell ya. The more I learn about it, the more questions come up. If there is anything too controversial that they find in their DNA research, you can rest assured that we(the public) will never know about it!

"If there is anything too controversial that they find in their DNA research, you can rest assured that we(the public) will never know about it!"

Academic and scientific researchers do work that they hope will advance knowledge (or thinking) and that will lead to public presentations and published papers. They race to out-do one another so that results can be shared.

One of the reasons for public dissemination is so that others in the field can challenge results and try to find problems with the the work or the conclusions reached. Not infrequently errors and problems are found, work gets redone, and conclusions are changed. (Which is also why the general public needs to spend less time trying to keep up with newly released medical findings. They're often found to be wrong in whole or in part.)

No one keeps quiet about findings, for researchers the culture is the exact opposite.

You can rest assured that research findings in this field and in others will continue as always to receive full public disclosure, just as these terribly interesting ones have.

The article I read cited just a few known Neanderthal parents affecting humans, about 40 if I remember correctly.

I haven't seen that (yet). At first glance, 40 doesn't sound like very many. But when we consider how long ago it was, and that we're said to all be descended from a single woman* in Africa, 40 could do the job and then some.

*By single, I don't mean she was without a partner. I'm sure she had help. ;-)

I had a professor mention that one of the earlier humans had an indentation in the tooth in the front of the canine teeth. Of course he said that there was no interbreeding but that was 30+ years ago. I was not brave enough to put my hand up and state that I had teeth groves. I have no idea if I am the only one but it stuck in my mind. For many reasons.

snidely...you are SOOOOO WRONG!

arkansas_girl...and your evidence for this is?

There are so many archeological finds that are hidden away it's not even funny. As far as proving that we carry the Neanderthal gene, that is not at all controversial and only proves to strengthen the theory of evolution. This all falls under that funny saying "I could tell ya but then I would have to &*!! you"...right! HAHAHA! It's classified!

This post was edited by arkansas_girl on Thu, Feb 20, 14 at 8:03

I tend to agree with Snidely, and I would like proof of your position other than just an emphatic statement. I don't know anything about hidden archeological finds, but I do know that there is a huge debate between the creationists and the evolutionists, and any information which would prove one "theory" over the other would be touted to the ends of the earth. Saying information is classified is no answer to me.

All this is just a tempest in a teapot. I'm me, I'm unique, that's all I know. Whether I'm descended from apes or superior space aliens, who cares? I've never taken an anthropology class in my life, perhaps I should?

I've never taken an anthropology class in my life, perhaps I should?

Probably not, Jannie. No one is expected to be interested in everything, and this is clearly not your thing. If I remember correctly, genealogy doesn't appeal to you either. It would be like me taking a course in haute couture. :-)

On the other hand, you might surprise yourself and find anthropology fascinating.

Neanderthals "were" thought to be exclusively carnivores. It's just recently proposed they ate vegetation...

They also found that a tribe of "little" people not over 30" tall really existed. Not just fables. They were inter-bred with larger people and did not die out....just bred out.

Seems breeding occurs between travelers of all species...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_behavior

My husband never studied it either but has adopted a real interest in it in his later years ...it really amazes me...that an geology...strange to me but the study of early man particularly ..Two of his cousins have actually done the DNA thing to find out their family DNA etc They all come from Sicily but it was interesting to find out the DNA produced a lot of bloodlines from the area of Greece and Iraq and Iran..or I guess I should say the Middle East.

Just saying, "There are so many archeological finds that are hidden away it's not even funny." is hardly evidence. I mean, I could say, "I have a time traveller living in my spare room who gives me stock markets tips" and that wouldn't make it true (though I wish it did :-) ).

This post was edited by colleenoz on Thu, Feb 20, 14 at 23:51

The problem with 'naysayers' is that you can't prove or dis-prove a negative. (The 'coverup' supposition.)

I encountered this once when Catholic Charities in Chicago claimed to have had fires that destroyed some adoptees' records. The institution was well known for creative embroidery of the truth and just plain lies, but who could prove or disprove that one? (The lies could only be revealed when adult adoptees could search and find their relatives.)

I understand the need to protect your religious beliefs and not want to see anything that doesn't go along with Adam and Eve.

It's not archeology that doesn't exist, it's archeology that's not talked about. If you research and you are interested in the field, it's there EVERYWHERE, but it's certainly not talked about and/or taught in schools. Then before you know it, the pieces come up missing. Stashed away, never to be seen again or stuck off in some box somewhere in a museum warehouse with only old photos left. You cannot research and examine old photos, you cannot get DNA samples from old photos so therefore they must not be real. I refuse to close my mind to what's all around me...I do not have some silly preconceived notions of how the heavens and earth were created. But in the end, it really doesn't make a whole hill of difference. We are born, live and pay taxes and get old and die. It is what it is...as they say. We will absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, never know the real truth. The evidence is long since been lost in history. I can old have my theory of what I believe which really only brings up more questions.

'I understand the need to protect your religious beliefs and not want to see anything that doesn't go along with Adam and Eve.'

Nobody said anything remotely like that.

The comments on this thread, other than yours, have been about scientific research & discoveries.

Genetic mixing is nature's powerful way of breeding stronger offspring, hence the truth in the old saying "Opposites attract."

From what I've read, most of us on earth today have about 4% to 6% Neanderthal genes;
the only people who don't have Neanderthals in their family trees are those whose ancestors either never left Africa or who did so only recently & who had children only with others who had no European ancestry.

I understand the need to protect your religious beliefs and not want to see anything that doesn't go along with Adam and Eve.

Seriously, that hasn't been even hinted at in this thread, and I've been grateful.

Maybe we've evolved farther than we thought?

o j

arkansas girl, you need not say anything more, but I don't think I'm the only person who you've confused with your comments.

One thing you seem to be saying is "we'll never know". I'm not sure what you're referring to, or why you feel that way, but your "they keep the truth from us" attitude isn't widely held. I'm also not sure who you think "they" are.

One of the interesting things about these Neanderthal DNA analyses is that they answer a question that for a long time was thought to be in the "we'll never know" category. That former question? What happened to Neanderthals, why did they become become extinct. The answer now known is - they didn't, their separate existence ceased due to interbreeding.

This has indeed been a conversation about science, not about religion. The guidance for this forum is to avoid conversations about religion and I think this thread has (mostly) done that well.

arkansas_girl, I don't dispute that there is research and property that has fallen by the wayside, but to imply that it's some sort of deliberate conspiracy is pushing it IMO. There is such a huge volume of stuff it's hard to keep track of, especially the older stuff which may not have been well documented in the first place. Unless someone is actively interested in it, it will lie in a dusty forgotten corner until it's found again, possibly by accident- that happens all the time (and usually the finders are happy and excited).
Your first post strongly suggested that the unspecified, nebulous "they" would be suppressing information. You would need a majority of involved scientists all agreeing to do so- and so often scientists do not agree, especially with new research. Since few scientists profess Creationism, it's hard to imagine it would be even possible to get enough together to suppress evidence of evolution.

Maybe I'm tired but I don't even understand the argument going on here. . .

One interesting thing is that the newly-discovered data may change our entire image of the Neanderthals.

Ages ago, the ancient Mayans were thought to have been a peaceful, almost docile, gentle people who must have gotten run over by a stronger, more aggressive race.

Then somebody figured out how to read their writing!

Yikes!

The whole world turned upside down:
The Mayans were a warlike people who practiced bloody rituals including human sacrifice.

i love it when scientists, researchers, archaeologists, etc find things like the Rosetta stone, the Dead Sea scrolls, the Neanderthal genes that give me my excellent immune system & maybe a big part of my brain ('cause maybe, like the Mayans not being docile, the Neanderthals weren't 'slow', maybe they were the ones who gave the intellectual quickness to our other ancestors!.)

I love it too, Sylvia . . . a wonderful puzzle with fascinating pieces.