It turns out that Neanderthals may not have been pushed out of existence by Homo sapiens because of inferior tools or smaller brains or less efficient hunting. What got 'em was sex.
Julien Riel-Salvatore, anthropology professor at the University of Colorado-Denver and Michal Barton, an anthropologist at Arizona State University, used a computer model to follow human and Neanderthal populations for 1500 generations. What they discovered is a long history of interbreeding. Genetic material from Neanderthals gradually diminished over time until it occupied less than 4 percent of the human genome. And eventually, the Neanderthals themselves faded entirely from the scene.
If I read the news report correctly, Neanderthal women must have had some sort of musky appeal to our male human ancestors. Maybe along the lines of the blues song, "She's ugly but she sure can cook." Fierce competition for resources has been cited as reason for Neanderthal's extinction, the assumption being that superior intellect won out. But it appears the real competition was between Homo sapiens and Neanderthal men for available women of both sub-species.
If I read the news report correctly, Neanderthal women must have had some sort of musky appeal to our male human ancestors. Maybe along the lines of the blues song, "She's ugly but she sure can cook." Fierce competition for resources has been cited as reason for Neanderthal's extinction, the assumption being that superior intellect won out. But it appears the real competition was between Homo sapiens and Neanderthal men for available women of both sub-species.
The data seem to suggest that women from both groups went with the guys who had less prominent brows and better personal grooming. For the cavemen of the day, there just wasn't enough musk ox fat to paste all those chest hairs down into something appealing to the opposite sex. Whatever tactics the browsters employed didn't improve their chances for making more babies like them.
The implication of this research is staggering. Want to get rid of the Neanderthals who keep trying to abolish the vote for women and who vote for restoring corporal punishment to our nation's schools? Get your sons to marry their daughters and make lots of babies. And then be sure that your sons and grandsons and great-great-great grandsons repeat the process a hundred generations down the line.
Eventually, the computer model says, your genes will come out on top and theirs will persist in such small numbers that they only express themselves in the occasional protruding forehead or while viewing Ultimate Fighting matches and Republican presidential candidate debates. Make love, not war. The sixties had it right all along.
The implication of this research is staggering. Want to get rid of the Neanderthals who keep trying to abolish the vote for women and who vote for restoring corporal punishment to our nation's schools? Get your sons to marry their daughters and make lots of babies. And then be sure that your sons and grandsons and great-great-great grandsons repeat the process a hundred generations down the line.
Eventually, the computer model says, your genes will come out on top and theirs will persist in such small numbers that they only express themselves in the occasional protruding forehead or while viewing Ultimate Fighting matches and Republican presidential candidate debates. Make love, not war. The sixties had it right all along.
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