A recent analysis of DNA extracted from a single Neanderthal bone has led
some to speculate that they were not our direct ancestor because the
split seems to occured much longer ago than the fossil record would
indicate.

NeanderThin comes from the gracile form of Neanderthal. In structure, a
modern human is a slender form of Neanderthal, one having less muscle
mass and a smaller head (and brain). Many examples of gracile forms of
wild animals becoming our domestic animals through neoteny exist
including the dog and the horse.

Just as the bones of Neanderthal indicate that this split occured only
60,000 years ago and the DNA sugests 600,000 years ago, so bones
recognizable as dogs appear only 14,000 years ago even though DNA suggest
the split from wolves occured 135,000 years ago.  The similarity in
ratios may tell us something about neoteny and the evolutionary time
scale necesarry to achieve it through enviromental presures.

These presures may have included the earlier beginings of the ice age on
the tropical homidid and the later warming of the earth for the
temperate/arctic wolf.  It is only when both species underwent a
significant amount of this process and existed in the same enviroment
that domestication appeared.

Regardless of the time scale involved, wolves are still considered to be
the progenitors of dogs and I have no doubt that Neanderthals are the
progenitors of NeanderThins.  The complexities of the processes involved
are not fully understood yet to say otherwise.  Isolated popultions of
wolves still exist despite dedicated efforts to wipe them out and the
vastly higher population of dogs, making the premise stated by these
scientists based on only one sample somewhat suspect.  If we could mate
with Neanderthals and produce fertile offsprings, as wolves do with dogs
(thus being the same species) is not answered by this experiment on only
one sample.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin:A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition"
http://www.sofdesign.com/neander