Neanderthal was just as human as us, and his stooped appearance was because of arthritis and rickets.
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<<< I'm sure you have more expirence in debating creationists that I, but isn't the neanderthal = human with diseases a known 'arguement?' >>>
To the extent that anything they say could really be considered an argument, yes. It's a pretty lousy one, though not one of the worst.
That Neanderthalism was the result of pathological changes caused by a number of diseases including arthritis and rickets was a legitimate scientific hypothesis back in the 19th C. It pretty much died when it became clear there was a population of the critters.
Today, its ghost haunts the empty skulls of creationists.
Actually, no, neanderthals are not the same species as modern humans. There is no relation, and that is a scientific fact.
<<< Actually, no, neanderthals are not the same species as modern humans. There is no relation, and that is a scientific fact. >>>
Would you like to try backing the second sentence up, or are you just making shit up?
Neandertal(Some still say Neanderthal)definately was genetically distinct.
But @ the same time, many seemingly hybrid fossils of Neandertal and Sapien have been found.(Most recently a 28,000 year old boy in Spain).The jury is still out on exactly how Neandertal as a distinct group died out.Neandertal was definately NOT like us.Eskimos(Inuits) are the most stocky and barrel-chested of Sapien humans.They look positively slim next to a Neandertal.Caucasians and Australoid Negroids have the most pronounced browridges of any Sapien humans.Next to Neandertal, they look infantile.Many other aspects of the skeletal morphology is quite distinct.
-My two bits
<<< He's right about one thing, Neaderthals might not be the same species as humans. >>>
Yeah, but the second sentence was full of shit. (I did specifically say that it was the second one I wanted him to try backing up.)
Yup, they were all born with arthritis and rickets.
Sure, they were just as human as us, as they were cousins to what later became Homo Sapiens Sapiens.
However, when we talk about "humans", we normally mean "modern day humans". The Neanderthals were never that, as they died out some thirty thousand years ago.
>>H
Actually, no, neanderthals are not the same species as modern humans. There is no relation, and that is a scientific fact. <<
No.
I refer you to the recent sequencing of the genomes of three Neanderthals, reported last year by Green et al.: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/328/5979/710.full They used samples from three Neanderthals who lived between 44,000 and 38,000 years ago.
The sequencing demonstrates that we shared common ancestors with these people as recently as ~45,000 years ago. We all have Neanderthal ancestors , who contributed a couple of percent of the current average human genome.
The Neanderthals were not a separate species. They were a separate sub-population of homo sapiens , which eventually merged back into the general population. And they weren't the only ones - homo sapiens idaltu and the recently identified Denisova hominins probably had a similar history.
Evolution is strange like that.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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