The relationship between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons is still being
hotly debated.  Recent DNA studies have sugested that modern men
separated from Neanderthals about ten times as long ago as they first
appeared in the fossil record, leading many to speculate on various
"out-of Africa" theories to explain the missing remains.

A similar animal anology exists that may preclude such claims.
Anatomical dogs first appear in the fossil record about 12,000 years ago.
DNA studies show than they began to split off from wolves about 120,000
years ago.  The physiological differences between wolves and dogs are
very similar to those between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon.  This
difference is called neoteny and is a common mutation that manifests
itself in almost all biological species especially those who increase
their geographical range rapidly.  Indeed Neanderthals and modern wolves
are neotinized versions of more ancient Hominids and Canines which
probally arose when inter-Ice Age warmings allowed their range to
increase dramatically.  Neoteny most simply explained as the retention of
juvenile traits into adulthood.  These traits manifest themselves in
several ways some physically apparent and some not so obvious.  When
breeding foxes for tameness, Siberian fox farmers found that they began
exhibiting physical differences after 15 generations, resulting in
short-snouted, curly-tailed, spotted fox-dogs.   Great pets, but useless
for coats.  They also have smaller brains than wild foxes as do modern
humans and dogs when compared to Neanderthals or wolves.  Neotinized
modern humans are called Down's Syndrome people (perhaps the ideal
factory farm workers).

In Nature such neoteny often results in symbiotic relationships.  A
lichen is just such a relationship between an alga and a fungus, both so
neotinized that they can't survive without the other.  Grains because
they never mature enough to fall from the shaft are also dependant on man
for their reproduction.  Agrarian man is also likewise dependent on the
grain for his "Daily Bread".  Cro-Magnon was likewise dependant on his
newly aquired dogs (and totemic religion) to give him a dramatic
advantage over his non-neotinized cousins.  One man with dogs can still
out hunt 20 without (or a wolf pack), perhaps some speculate,leading to
the Pleistocene extinctions which led to the Neolithic Revolution!

To those who rail against this continuining process of neoteny I
reccomend Paul Shepard's (also a falconer)"The Tender Carnivore and The
Sacred Game" (Charles Scribner and Sons,New York,1973).

Ray Audette (who considers Falconry to be a daily totemic religious
ritual)
Author "NeanderThin:A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition"



Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
> All of that successful ice-age
> gatherers/hunters- they died out between 40000 and 33000BC.
> Homo neanderthalensis - a kind of Schwarzenegger-style
> human (1/3 stronger than us) didn't make it.
> Something went wrong - we still don't know what...