Neanderthals v Humans

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handofdave H
handofdave Oct 30, 2012 17:25:32
Replying to Littlestone

I believe that they would qualify as our ancestors in the sense that we do contain their DNA in varying amounts... if we're Europeans. Sub-Saharan Africans do not... Apparently, Neanderthals were always a northern hominid and did not venture down into Africa.

I would guess the Neanderthals would have been capable of erecting some small structures, but would they have gone to the trouble of hauling and finishing large megaliths? Speculative. The sort of grandiosity that homo sapiens is famous for doesn't seem to have ever infected the other branches of our tree, but as so much is gone to time, who can really know for sure.

H Harryshill
Harryshill Oct 30, 2012 17:38:12
Replying to handofdave

I agree with the ancestor and DNA thing

L Littlestone
Littlestone Nov 3, 2012 10:08:25
Replying to handofdave

handofdave wrote:
I believe that they would qualify as our ancestors in the sense that we do contain their DNA in varying amounts... if we're Europeans. Sub-Saharan Africans do not... Apparently, Neanderthals were always a northern hominid and did not venture down into Africa.
Well, I might be wrong, but the common ancestor of Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals is Homo heidelbergensis. As far as I know Homo Sapiens are not descended from Neanderthals in any way what so ever, though we do carry some of their DNA through breeding with them at some point.

Going back some half a million years, and long before Neanderthals were here, Homo heidelbergensis was at Boxgrove in West Sussex (though even they were not the earliest example of humanoids in this part of the world). There’s a nice little write-up on Homo heidelbergensis here if you’re interested.