Somehow I missed this, (probably because I was traveling at the time and
having little time to deal with e-mail)
At 10:44 AM 8/24/98 -0400, Jeff Pratt wrote:
> I read some time ago about dna extracted from neanderthal bones shows no
common-ancesteral link between them and humans. Does anyone know if this
has been confirmed?
There is a significant difference between what the data says and what the
press says about it. Krings et al write:
"This suggests that Neandertals went extinct without contributing mtDNA to
modern humans." ~ Matthias Krings, et al., "Neandertal DNA Sequences and
the Origin of Modern Humans," Cell, 90:19-30, p. 19
This means that that Neandertals mother left no female offspring in today's
world. That does not rule out other genetic contributions by neanderthals
to modern humans. That may or may not be possible in the future. One can't
rule it out yet. Krings et al write:
"These results do not rule out the possibility that Neandertals
contributed other genes to modern humans. However, the view that
Neandertals would have contributed little or nothing to the modern human
gene pool is gaining support from studies of molecular genetic variation at
nuclear loci in humans." ~ Matthias Krings, et al., "Neandertal DNA
Sequences and the Origin of Modern Humans," Cell, 90:19-30, p. 27
And even if they left no offspring alive today, the fact that they behaved
like us, made art, jewelry, musical instruments (see my web page), lived in
tents, made spears, used fire and left some evidence of religious
activities means that they were most likely spiritual beings. And like
many Native Americans who were wiped out by the small pox plagues and have
left no descendants on earth today, they were still human, and this may
apply to the Neandertal.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm