I was watching an interesting documentary called "Sex with Neandathals" last night, about the possibility that Neandathal man could have been assimilated into the human gene pool by interbreeding.
It showed how modern man came from Africa, whereas Neandathal man came from Europe. At some points their paths crossed, but rather than modern human driving and forcing Neandathal man into non existence they learned to co exist.
This is a developing theory amongst some scientists and anthropologists that seems to be getting a foothold. It has been shown how similar species of animal have interbred, giving an example of two very different types of baboon.
The documentary shown how Neandathal man, far from being ape like was more human, which is now universally accepted. Two burial sites have been found of Neandathal children with objects placed by them. One scientist argues that the skeleton of the child has similarities of both modern man and Neandathal.
Studies are being done with a bone found that contains DNA of Neandathal, it has shown that there are some of the same genetics, such as language, whereas others are different. However the study is not yet complete, so time will tell i guess.
They argue that modern day humans are so varied in terms of colour and genetic make up, that this could be an explanation of the variation. This theory would also explain the "disappearance" of Neandathal man, in that the species hasn't disappeared at all.
Wondered if anyone had any thoughts?
Paul