On Fri, 7 Apr 2000 09:50:04 +0200, Christy ten Broeke
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I wrote:
>> And the neanderthal population broke down and was completely
>>replaced by us.

Christy:
>Not exactly.  There is a lot of evidence that we interbreeded  with
>Neanderthals. In fact the latest theories suggest that the bones as found
>in Portugal that have both 'modern' human features and Neanderthal mean
>that this happened globally.

I can't see "a lot" of evidence for a interbreeding. The *only*
pro-interbreeding artefact i know of are this
boys remainders. A boy which looks like a half-breed of  a neanderthal
and an atomically modern human.
But this may be a boy which has just been suffering from iodide lack.
The difference of neanderthal to modern man's physiology has once been
described as beeing very similar to what happens to moderns with a severs
iodide lack.

Or,
it maybe that this boy *was* a child of a Neanderthal with a modern
human (woman ...). Then he probably had no descendants, because there are
no other "mixture" artefacts found. The other artefacts found can be
classified either clearly neanderthal or clearly cro magnon.
So, *if* modern humans and neanderthals could interbreed, then
the descendants possibly could have become an infertile generation.
Like horses and donkeys can have descendants (mulis),
but they are infertile.
Since neanderthal and Cro-Magnon had been genetically quite apart
(600000 years is was 30000y ago), it sounds possible.

Why i wrote "Cro Magnon Woman" above: DNA-Analysis of mitochondria only
assures that no neanderthals mothers are involved. Men maybe.
But then the physiognomy of the descendants should leave *some*
traces of the neanderthal physiognomy. And we have only one example.

Ok here it comes: my own neanderthal die-out theory:
Were the modern human (Cro Magnon) women more attracted by big and strong
neanderthal men? And were moder human women sexually more attractive in
some way than Neanderthal women? Comeing from a worm area
(since 100k years), did they develope more sexual attractiveness than
neanderthal women, hided under thick clothing in the north?
I theorize: All Yes. And all the neanderthal man Cro Magnon Women matings
were able  to have and had half-breed sons and dougthers. But these were
*infertile*.
Leaving only a few one-generation traces.
In this way, only neanderthal mothers were able to continue the
neanderthal line - but by Cro Magnon superior sexual competition
they didn't find enough mates and long term protectors.
And neanderthals did die out. Well, they actually did.

Even Ray Audette has to utilize a "neoteny" theory which has to postulate
that existing (neanderthal) genes make a sudden move and suddenly
totally hide in the genes to never show up again.

>... interesting documentary on BBC that showed this.
>In fact, when looking carefully you can see people having some Neanderthal
>fatures (pointed out in the series) !!!!  One scientist showed a picture of
>his father , heavy eyebrows, build like a house etc.

The characteristic differences can of course only be found in bones -
we only have bones of neanderthals. I found a listing of a dozend or so
chacacteristics *on the bones* to distinguish skeletons clearly.
They are small and slight, but clear and *never* found in modern humans.

Heavy eyebrows? Do you think of hair, or bones? Neanderthals
had a thick bone bulge over the eye under the brows.
Even if you allow modern people to have different shapes of heads.
Do you know such a man?
Or, why can't a modern man (or woman) be big and built like a house?
Without trying to condemn the whole various-place-developement theory..
I think that sounds a more like a product of good phantasy than of
proofable bone differences.

regards

Amadeus S.