On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, Amadeus Schmidt wrote:

> Maybe the neanderthal possible living space shrinked too small... to zero.
> Lost between rabbit starvation and glaciation in south Spain.
>
> This kind of explanation works only of the population doesn't switch to
> different caloric sources of wormer climates, especially nuts which are very
> fatty and nutritious. It's possible that eather neanderthals genetically
> weren't able to digest plant food properly.

I think your theory is plausible.  Nuts aren't available for much
of the year anyway, even in temperate climates, so they wouldn't
have been the complete solution to the problem.

Consider that human beings have amylase, the enzyme for digesting
the most common sugar in starch, in their saliva.  Carnivores
such as dogs and cats do not have this.  Perhaps this is a
*later* adaptation to the increased need to find non-animal
energy sources.

Todd Moody
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