Pentagram a Catholic symbol?!

[Artemisblessed]

we're as smart as bugs!

somehow, i have no trouble at all believing that...

[Kelreth]

uhhh doplhins dont walk.....

People like you I both want to hit and hug. Luckily you are protected from each by the mighty computer screen.

Go computer screens!!!! woot!! lol

[Willow]

uhhh doplhins don't walk.....

So we have a smarty pants on our hands do we. You play nice with Artemis Blessed and CHL, no more hitting or hugging the computer screen.



I would make a terrible Mom.
Anyway, I didn't know dolphins could plan to kill each other, I always thought Douglas Adams was smart for giving them all the credit he did.

However, there are some primates who can use tools, I wonder if they would be able to plan to kill too. I read a book called a short history of progress that argues that the only reason that Cro-magnons out competed the neanderthals is because wee literally tried to kill them off, we put out their fire and stole their food.

Ahh, I am proud of our noble humanity!

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Yes we learned that about Cro-Magnons in school. This was about the time that I went to Sunday School (once) with my friend and the teacher told us that people of history were MUCH MUCH taller than now. The next day my teacher told us that early humans were small and bent over. I spent a half hour scratching my head and asking who was lying here.

I was thinking how terrible Cro-Magnon was and then she told us that they were our ancestors. Hmmmm. (I was about 7 at this point, by the way.) Go humans. Gah. We sicken me. lol.

[Willow]

We sicken me

ROFL

Now if I am not mistaken, there were some bent over ancestors and some taller ancestors depending on the period.

http://www.becominghuman.org/

This website is pretty cool if you have time to watch the online documentaries (sorry for the dial up speed CHL) and if you can get past the pretentious narrator.

While I don't like the competition, it kind of strikes me as the way of all flesh, even now we are more protective of in-group members than out-group, oddly enough, that may be why we are still around. Not condoning it though, i think we should be a little past that stage.
Blessings

[Rain ForestMoon]

....... I read a book called a short history of progress that argues that the only reason that Cro-magnons out competed the neanderthals is because wee literally tried to kill them off, we put out their fire and stole their food........

If I understand evolutionary theory correctly, when two species (try to) occupy the same niche, either one species goes extinct, or evolves to exploit some other niche.

I believe that the end of the ice ages allowed (almost-)modern humans to move into geographical areas that were getting warm enough for them, but the Neanderthals were still there because they were far more adapted to the cold.

From what I read, both co-existed for some thousands of years. Bot co-existing does not mean that the were "neighbours" in a modern sense. I would suggest that the Neanderthals might have occupied the more elevated areas, that were still too cold for our ancestors. As things either warmed up more still, or perhaps because of population pressures, the Neanderthals then disappeared.

It is important to remember that the Neanderthals are not our ancestors. They were a different species. Although it is possible (but not certain) that they may have had evolved from the same common ancestor.


Warfare against members of the same species was invented a lot later (one needs to have reasonably developed social organisation in order to do that, I think).

Blessings

[Crazy Healer Lady]

It is important to remember that the Neanderthals are not our ancestors. They were a different species. Although it is possible (but not certain) that they may have had evolved from the same common ancestor.

Indeed, but aren't there theories that in some isolated cases there was interbreeding? This was my understanding, anyway. It has been a loooong time since I studied human evolution.

[Kelreth]

It is possible and some what likely that Cromagnum and Homosapien crossbred at one or more points in time. I think they have found fossils of humanoids that bear resemblence to homosapiens and cromagnums

[majickalman]

What the heck is a Cromagnum

Just playin
Interesting thread tho, not my realm yet

[Crazy Healer Lady]

It is possible and some what likely that Cromagnum and Homosapien crossbred at one or more points in time. I think they have found fossils of humanoids that bear resemblence to homosapiens and cromagnums

I think the only way a Cro-Magnon could interbreed with a Homo Sapien is with a time machine

[Kelreth]

well maybe not homosapiens but our direct descendents

only thing that might ahve stopped crossbreeding is genetic structure...

[Artemisblessed]

wow. i just learned about Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals in my Bio class.
Aren't Cro-Magnons the modern humans and the neanderthals have nothing to do with us?

confuzzled...

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Yes Cro-Magnon is the type of hominid that evolved into Homo Sapiens.

As for interbreeding:

Skeletons apparently sharing Neanderthal and Cro-magnon features have been found in Portugal; it is unclear whether these are in fact hybrids of the two species, or simply extreme individuals of one or the other species. These may suggest the two species did interbreed. However, it has been speculated that these hybrid individuals could have been sterile. It is very difficult to prove as the genetic differences between Neanderthals and Cro-magnons were far more minute than the morphological differences between the two species might seem to indicate. Tests comparing Neanderthal and modern human mitochondrial DNA show too great a dissimilarity for Neanderthals to have contributed to the human mitochondrial genome. The mtDNA indicated a split between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals occurred more than 500,000 years ago. Morphological symmetry and asymmetry often belies genetic truth in the case of these ancient Homo populations. In any case it is possible but highly unlikely that the Neanderthals, with their small sedentary populations, could have been absorbed by the much larger populations of modern Homo sapiens, but without living Neanderthals it cannot be absolutely proven that they could interbreed with anatomically modern Homo sapiens to produce viable offspring. These hybrid remains should not be confused with Homo heidelbergensis, the more ancient common ancestor of both the Neanderthal and modern man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neandertal ... ro-Magnons

Thank you people for introducing me to Wikipedia.

[Willow]

Up until my anthropology class all my understanding of this stuff came form the clan of the cave bear.
I think another major difference between the two species was that neanderthals never made art, and they could not use tools that required a fine point grip.

Fascinating stuff.

[Artemisblessed]

it's interesting how many people think that WE are the ignorant ones, but here we are sitting on the board talking about Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons...

...interesting...