I have spent a lot of time reading about new findings about Neanderthals over the past year. Recently, I wrote about the coincidence of two studies published in July: one demonstrating genetic overlap between modern humans and Neanderthals (resulting from sexual relationships), the other proposing that Neanderthals were pushed out of their territory by an… [Read more…]
January 3, 2011
For those of us raised on the first generation of mass TV, The Donna Reed Show became the epitome of idealized (and thus unreal) suburban family life. I couldn’t help thinking of Donna Reed in the face of the barrage of recent coverage of news about Neanderthals. Neanderthal girls, we are now told, “wept bitterly”… [Read more…]
November 4, 2010
Digit ratios sounds like something students in primary school have to learn. But according to research published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), the proportions of the fingers of the hominin hand are tell tale signs of relative promiscuity, at least for Ardipithecus, early modern humans, and Neanderthals. “The fingers… [Read more…]
July 7, 2010
Prehistoric man apparently boasted a rock-hard body, including an overdeveloped right arm that would make Popeye jealous. Olive Oyl,your hero is waiting… The best line in this New York Daily News story is this: Simply put, the Neanderthal body was brimming with natural steroids. Really? add a gratuitous reference to “girlie-men”, and the story itself… [Read more…]
August 7, 2011
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