Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens face to face

AfricanPrince Says:

Jul 20, 2008 - The narrator says that by the time modern humans arrived in Europe, their appearance had changed. According to an article I read, White skin is only 6000 years old. The narrator also says that, unlike neanderthals, we are "fully human" in our mind. This implies that evolution is goal oriented and we were the intended end product. We are not inherently superior to neanderthals, we are just another species of human.

Cyraside Says:

Jul 29, 2008 - I'm not sure exactly how old white skin is, and this is regular TV programming so you know they probably get things wrong. My rough estimate for white skin would go back at least 40 to 50,000 years, but I'm most likely wrong. White skin could very well be 6,000 years old, with a more darker version in the past that may have looked somewhat white.

Cyraside Says:

Jul 29, 2008 - As for the narrator saying "fully human" I think he could of meant that this was around the first time our minds were capable of what they are today. Just as you said, we aren't superior to Neanderthals- they're just fine for their environment. Just like white people aren't superior to Africans, black people continued evolving to the people they are today. Evolution really doesn't seem to have a goal but maybe intelligence is inevitable if you think about it. Humans are that lucky intelligence.

atmac17 Says:

Aug 5, 2008 - The humans at the time wouldn't have had haircuts.

winterstellar Says:

Aug 7, 2008 - African. Evolution is random, not "goal oriented". Good brains happened to be beneficial.

AfricanPrince Says:

Aug 7, 2008 - That's my point exactly...

rlinfinity Says:

Sep 2, 2008 - there were white skinned and even red haired neanderthals. the lighter skin was merely an adaptation in northern regions as lighter skin allowed synthesis of Vitamin D even in areas where sunlight is scarce.

rlinfinity Says:

Sep 2, 2008 - evolution is neither perfectly random no tirelessly goal-oriented. but besides the rule of natural selection, there is pervasive self-organisation in all natural systems, and this applies to evolution. While mutations themselves may be fairly random, evolution does have a direction.

rlinfinity Says:

Sep 2, 2008 - aNOTHER interesting point Homo sapiens neanderthalensis had a larger brain than ours (in fact so did cromagnon man), and they were physically stronger and resilient. They were perfectly adapted to living and hunting in harsh ice age conditions. Perhaps this presented a disadvantages after conditions became warmer, but the actualy reasons for why we prevailed over the neanderthals is possibly more complex.