Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

} On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:19:11 +0000 (UTC), R J Valentine
} <rj@TheWorld.com> wrote:
}
...
}>} From http://www.psu.edu/ur/NEWS/news/Neandertal.html :
}>}
}>} University Park, Pa. -- A team of U.S. and German researchers has
}>} extracted mitochondrial DNA from Neandertal bone showing that the
}>} Neandertal DNA sequence falls outside the normal variation of
}>} modern humans.
}>}
}>} "These results indicate that Neandertals did not contribute
}>} mitochondrial DNA to modern humans," says Dr. Mark Stoneking,
}>} associate professor of anthropology at Penn State. "Neandertals
}>} are not our ancestors."
}>
}>Non sequitur.  It means only that they are merely not our strictly
}>matrilineal ancestors.  We could be almost entirely Neanderthalers.
}>Maybe at one point there was just one really cute non Neanderthaler.
}
} I presume you actually read the article. It says the results show
} there is no neandertal genetic contribution to homo sapiens, and
} that the two species diverged some 500,000 years ago. If, in
} fact, neandertalis and sapiens sapiens were very similar
} genetically, they would have produced lost of little neander
} sapiens which would have contributed neandertal genes to sapiens.
} Certainly there would have likely been considerable sex between
} the two species, given that homo sapiens is known to screw sheep
} and donkeys and vacuum cleaners and certainly consenting
} neandertals would have had some attraction.

I read what you said some associate professor said (reiterated yet again
above).  It may be true that "These results indicate that Neandertals did
not contribute mitochondrial DNA to modern humans," as you quote Dr. Mark
Stoneking as saying; but the very next thing you quote him as saying
("Neandertals are not our ancestors.") does not follow from that.

If what *you* say ("there is no neandertal genetic contribution to homo
sapiens" [sic]) is also said in the article, that's am entirely different
matter.  I'd suggest that there is some 99 percent of DNA in common and
that what who contributed to whom would be hard to determine with current
techniques.  The mitochondrial DNA from the Neanderthal specimen is merely
different from that of Mitochondrial Eve.  Big deal.