On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, Dori Zook wrote:

> >Further evidence, it seems, that Neanderthals were not our
> >ancestors.
>
> Okay, a dumb question.  How different were Neanderthals from other (insert
> proper term here) of early humans?  Are we talking cows vs. cock roaches or
> are the Neanderthal and the Cro Magnon (or whatever) more like house cats
> vs. bobcats?  And does that make sense?

Sure, it makes sense.  I don't know how to answer it, though.  It
seems that Neanderthal and Cro Magnon (=us) had a common
ancestor, which must have been at least a half million years ago,
maybe more.  If a Neanderthal walked into a shopping mall, people
would stare.  The genetic evidence appears to be increasingly
against the hypothesis, once popular, that we descended from the
Neanderthal.

> Seriously, I wonder, scientifically speaking, if there were significant if
> any differences between the metabolisms and digestive systems of the various
> offshoots of the early human species.  And I'm sure my terms are all
> rediculous but, hopefully, it makes sense.

I wonder if there's any way to find out.  The Neanderthal had
larger brains than ours -- did they have shorter guts?  The
Expensive Tissue Hypothesis says they should have, but I wonder
if there's some other marker of gut length.

Todd Moody
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