neanderthal (Page 6)

We’ve long speculated about whether or not Neanderthals interbred with early modern man. Some scientists say that we’re the ones who branched off from the family tree?that Neanderthals were the “normal” humans. If the Neanderthals hadn’t died out, we all might be cannibals today.

When Neanderthals suffered periods of starvation, they may have resorted to cannibalism. This the conclusion that a group of paleobiologists came to after studying eight 43,000-year-old Neanderthal skeletons that were excavated from an underground cave in Spain. The bones revealed cut marks, as well as evidence that they had been torn apart.
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We’ve already written about how redheads may be related to Neanderthals. No it turns out that European women evolved blonde hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age in order to attract men. In those days, the most common hair color was brunette.

Arifa Akbar writes in the Independent that blonde hair evolved at a time when both food and men were in short supply, and there were many women competing for a limited number of males, who died off at an early age due to the physical trials of hunting. This all happened about ten thousand years ago. Before that time, most humans had brown hair and brown eyes. The reason the blonde anomaly succeeded so well was because men were attracted to them.

Art credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk
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Newswise – While theories about what our human ancestors ate abound,and are touted in modern low carb diet books, which promotethe idea that ancient man ate meat and not carbohydrates,until now there have been few methods for proving any ofthese theories. But now University of Arkansas professorPeter S. Ungar has found that by comparing modern-day teethwith the fossil teeth from ancient skulls, he can answerthese questions. He has discovered a major change in thediet of our early ancestors, as they switched from foragingand eating a plant-based diet, to becoming more efficienthunters and eating tougher, more chewy foods?like meat.
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If you have red hair, your ancestors may have beenNeanderthals. British scientists think that the gene for redhair, and the freckles that come with it, is around 100,000years old, and originated with Neanderthals. Whether or notthey interbred with Homo Sapiens, who came along later, hasalways been controversial, but since the redhead gene isstill around, this means that they did.

Planetsave.com reports that Neanderthals have beencharacterized as being slow witted,but modern research showsthis wasn?t true. They were aggressive fighters, however,and the fact that 10% of Scottish people have red hair and40% carry the redhead gene may explain why they?ve been sotough to conquer. Neanderthals finally died out about 28,000years ago.
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