Romanian Neanderthal May Have Interbred With Modern Humans

A report in National Geographic says that a skull found in a Romanian cave is shaking up ideas about Neanderthal Man and its relationship to modern humans.  The mostly modern skull shows a feature that was characteristic of Neanderthals: “The otherwise human skull has a groove at the base of the back of the skull, just above the neck muscle, that is ubiquitous in Neandertal specimens but has never been seen in the remains of a modern human,” the article states.  Discoverer Erik Trinkaus (Washington U in St. Louis) was surprised: “My first reaction was, that shouldn’t be there,” he said.

If they interbred with us, they were us.  Are there any doubters left?  Thus ends a century-and-a-half myth that Neanderthal Man was less than human.  The range of variations in fully human specimens probably encompasses other skeletons that paleoanthropologists mistakenly classify as outgroups.  Look at this picture from the Daily Mail: would you have classified these guys as separate species only from their skeletons?  Works for other species, too (see another Daily Mail picture).