More Archaeology Answers
Question Library
Ask a question about Archaeology
Volunteer
Experts of the Month
Expert Login
Awards
About Us
Tell friends
Link to Us
Disclaimer
|
| |
|
|
| |
| | | |
About John J. Shea
Expertise
Questions about Old World prehistoric archaeology (mainly Europe, Near East, and Africa during the Paleolithic period/Pleistocene Epoch).
IMPORTANT: I do not give advice about colleges. I do not appraise the value of artifacts or fossils.
Experience
University professor of anthropology/archaeology since 1991.
Dozens of publications in peer-review anthropology journals.
Director of archaeological-paleontological expeditions and excavations in Israel, Jordan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
See my main profile under Allexperts` "Anthropology" section.
Professional website: http://www.sunysb.edu/anthro/staff/jshea.shtml
Personal website: http://www.sunysb.edu/anthro/Shea/Shea%20pers%20webpage.htm
| | |
| |
You are here: Experts > Science > Archaelogy > Archaeology > Neanderthal
Expert: John J. Shea - 9/18/2008
Question
If we are, as recently realized, much further separated from Neanderthals, is it not possible that they may have had surface features (noses, ears, lips, texture, etc.) considerably different than we have always imagined, and that this could lend some explanation to the lack of evident intermingling?
thank you.
Answer
Erin
All species have morphological features that signal potential mates. Such differences could have been a factor in discouraging interbreeding between Neandertals and Homo sapiens. Most reconstructions tend to assume Neandertals looked pretty much like recent European Homo sapiens (white skin, sparse body hair), but we have no actual evidence of this. They could have retained ancestral soft-tissue charactersistics or independently evolved very different features, such as dense body hair. Such features might have signaled "appropriate possible mate" to fellow Neandertals and "don't touch" to our ancestors. Understandably, it is difficult to investigate this with the fossil record. Maybe when the Neandertal genome is decoded, this is the sort of question that can be answered conclusively.
There is a novel, Dance of the Tiger, by the paleontologist Bjorn Kurten, that explored this possibility in fiction.
Cheers,
John Shea
Add to this Answer
Ask a Question
|
|
