http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/5_8_99/fob7.htm
which casts a bit more balance on the recent story about a claimed
Neandertal-Modern Human hybrid.
After examining the evidence, neither Stringer nor Schwartz are
convinced
that the skeleton is anything more than an "unusually stocky modern
human".<<
I am always amused when someone uses the term balanced. It has been my
observation that when someone says a report is balanced, it usually
means that it isn't as bad for my side as other reports were.
It also amuses me that anti-evolutionists like Steve fight had to make
Neanderthal something other than us. If anti-evolutionists would
include Neanderthal within the human family, they could easily claim
that since they can breed with us, there really hasn't been any evoution
at all--just microevolution. For anti-evolutionists to fight tooth and
nail to avoid having to include fossil man seem counterproductive for
their postiion.
While as of this moment, the technical report of the prospective hybrid
has yet to be published, and thus we don't know its real place yet as
only some people have seen the evidence. And your article did note that
some anthropologists were convinced by the data.
As to the rejection of Schwartz and Stringer, that was almost to be
expected. If Chris Stringer and Jeffrey Schwartz accepted it, almst
everything they had ever written in their careers would be wrong. I
would also point out a disturbing sequence of events. Your report, dated
May 8, says that Trinkaus reported the result in a meeting the week of
May 1. Stringer had not seen the data until that meeting. But on April
25, Stringer told the AP PRIOR to the May 1st meeting, "Dr. Chris
Stringer, an expert on Neanderthals at the Museum of Natural History in
London, who is a leader of the out-of-Africa forces, said that he was
willing to consider the Portuguese findings with an open mind. He told
The Associated Press that the current evidence was not sufficient to
convince him of Dr. Trinkhaus's hybrid interpretation." John Noble, New
York Times, April 25, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/042599sci-human-fossil.html
The original AP report was on the 16th of April so long before Stringer
had seen the data, he was rejecting it. Don't blame him if it would mean
that everything he has written about Neanderthal would be wrong.
So before he had even seen the data, Stringer was telling the press that
the data was insufficient to convince him. That sounds quite the
opposite of an open mind.
Now, I just looked at the PNAS web page and found that the article has
been published in the June 22 edition. Here is the abstract:
Vol. 96, Issue 13, 7604-7609, June 22, 1999
Anthropology
The early Upper Paleolithic human skeleton from
the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern
human emergence in Iberia
(Neandertals / mandible / postcrania / dentition / radiocarbon dating)
Cidlia Duarte*,, Joo Maurcio, Paul B. Pettitt, Pedro Souto, Erik
Trinkaus,,**, Hans van der Plicht, and
Joo Zilho
* Instituto Portugus do Patrimnio Arquitectnico, Diviso de
Conservao e Restauro, Palcio da Ajuda, 1400-206 Lisbon,
Portugal; Department of Anthropology, 13-15 Henry Marshall Tory
Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton T6G 2H4,
AB, Canada; Sociedade Torrejana de Espeleologia e Arqueologia, Quinta
da Lezria, 2350 Torres Novas, Portugal;
Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and
the History of Art, University of Oxford, 6 Keble
Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, England; Department of Anthropology, Campus Box
1114, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
63130; Unit Mixte de Recherche 5809 du Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie,
Universit de Bordeaux I, 33405 Talence, France; Centrum voor Isotopen
Onderzoek, Faculteit der Wiskunde en
Natuurwetenschappen, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG
Groningen, The Netherlands; and Instituto
Portugus de Arqueologia, Avenida da India 136, 1300 Lisbon, Portugal
Contributed by Erik Trinkaus, April 26, 1999
The discovery of an early Upper Paleolithic human burial at the Abrigo
do Lagar Velho, Portugal, has provided evidence of early modern humans
from southern Iberia. The remains, the largely complete skeleton of a
4-year-old child buried with pierced shell and red ochre, is dated to
ca. 24,500 years B.P. The cranium, mandible, dentition, and postcrania
present a mosaic of European early modern human and Neandertal features.
The temporal bone has an intermediate-sized juxtamastoid eminence. The
mandibular mentum osseum and the dental size and proportions, supported
by mandibular ramal features, radial tuberosity orientation, and
diaphyseal curvature, as well as the pubic proportions align the
skeleton with early modern humans.Body proportions, reflected in
femorotibial lengths and diaphyseal robusticity plus tibial condylar
displacement, as well as mandibular symphyseal retreat and
thoracohumeral muscle insertions, align the skeleton with the
Neandertals. This morphological mosaic indicates admixture between
regional Neandertals and early modern humans dispersing into southern
Iberia. It establishes the complexities of the Late Pleistocene
emergence of modern humans and refutes strict replacement models of
modern human origins.
** To whom reprint requests should be addressed. e-mail:
trinkaus@artsci.wustl.edu.
Copyright 1999 by The National Academy of Sciences
0027-8424/99/967604-6$2.00/0
Now, I would like to point out that in my note to the reflecton on April
24, 1999, I
(http://www.calvin.edu/archive/evolution/199904/0260.html) mentioned
that:
"Neanderthal muscle attachments were different than ours.
They were extremely strong and some people believe that this evolved in
response to the way they hunted big game (by getting them to charge and
at the last minute stepping aside and grabbing the animals fur and
using short knives to stab the animal and the Neanderthal was carried
along).
No anatomically modern human has Neanderthal-type muscle attachments.
If this boy had those types of attachements, then he was a hybrid, no
doubt."
Trinkaus et al are reporting that this child INDEED HAD SOME OF THE
CHARACTERISTICALLY NEANDERTHAL MUSCLE ATTACHMENTS!!!!!!
This child is a hybrid.