Why is it thought that the Neanderthals contributed little to the gene pool of modern humanity?

Question

a. Recent studies of human and Neanderthal DNA show signifcant differences in base sequences.

b. The fossils found in the Neander Valley were a hoax and the "Neanderthals" never really existed.

c. Neanderthals had degenerated brain capacity and thus could not have contributed to human ancestry.

d. There is no evidence that Neanderthals were capable of walking upright or using tools.

e. Humans, the "naked apes," have nothing in common with the Neanderthals, the "hairy apes."

Answer 1

it's A. Your mtdna,inherited through the maternal line, goes back to the dawn of time and no neanderthals have show up yet!

Answer 2

Well, where did you get this stuff?

None of the above.

It sounds like some bible thumpery to me.

None other than the max Plank (pronounced 'mox ploank') institute in Leipzig is doing the tracing science. It is from established scientific institutes such as the Plank organization that we should take our information.

So, the answer is, we do not yet know whether Neander and modern humans interbred. They certainly co-existed in Europe and Asia until about 30 to 35,000 years ago.

Answer 3

A.

We killed all Neanderthals, despite the fact that they were highly intelligent.  We were more ruthless.

Answer 4

A

Answer 5

by competing for resources and land they slighty influncesd our founding society.

Answer 6

I really think that many Neanderthals have jumped into that pool a long time ago, and they were invited in by none other than the European Cro Magnons, but theyre such snobs they dont like to admit it.

Answer 7

The fossils found in the Neander valley were not hoaxes.  The "fossils" found at Piltdown, England were.  Evidence exists that Neanderthals weren't "brutes".  They used fire, wore skins for clothes, used tools (simple, compared to Cro Magnon, but tools nonetheless) and fossil records show that they also used language (they found a fossilized hyoid bone, the one in the Adam's apple) indicating they communicated using more than just grunts.  As for their contribution to the "human" gene pool, I believe that's still up for debate since no evidence had been found that Neanderthals and Cro Magnon (our direct ancestors) ever interbred.  As for walking upright, they did that as well though when the first fossils were found it was thought that they were bowlegged. It was later shown that the specimen recovered had suffered from either rickets, osteoperosis or arthritis.

Answer 8

among all of those, A sounds the best. Everything else is totally irrational.

Answer 9

Don't be so sure of that !!   You ever been to Georgia ?

Answer 10

Where did the above 'information' came from? Who was the one doing the thinking?

I'm not aware of any signficant work on Neanderthal DNA, and I follow these things pretty closely. What is the nature of the "significant differences"? Where did the studies take place and by whom? Where are the results published?

Some of the early interpretations of  the fossils first found in the Neander Valley were imaginative, to put it kindly.  You might be thinking of the Piltdown Hoax, in Britain.

What is "degenerated" brain capacity.  On the average, Neanderthal brains are believed to have been somewhat smaller than an average modern human, but the difference is no greater than would be found between individuals of the human population.  American Army statistics would suggest that even though women have smaller brains, on average, they are smarter. It looks to me as if football players might have "degenerated brain capacity, but it doesn't seem to have affected their reproductive capacities.

Modern interpretations of relatively complete Neanderthal skeletons indicate that Neanderthals probably walked erect. Stone tools have been found in association with such bones. In one case, it appears that a body had flowers put on it before burial.

Human "apes" and Neanderthal "apes" have in common at least that they're both "apes".

Excavations in Portugal by Cidalia Duarte indicate that there  have been occurrences of interbreeding between these two sub-species.

I think that someone has been pulling your leg.

Answer 11

F.  this is the opinion of "cro-magnon man"