More Penitence Needed Toward Our Neanderthal Brethren
Evolutionists acknowledge changing views toward Neanderthals, but they fall short of apology for fake science.
Mingling with Neanderthals (Current Biology). Michael Gross gives a wimpy answer to the mistakes evolutionists have made about ‘Neanderthal Man’ in the past, saying, “the story of what was once described as a replacement of Eurasia’s archaic populations with modern humans is becoming more complicated.” He calls it a “surprising finding” that we have Neanderthal genes. How complicated? Look at the gobbledygook in this quote:
“We view this transition as a dynamic process of cultural evolution that occurred in complex, highly structured, cultural and demographic contexts, both in space and in time… This view emphasizes joint considerations of ecological, demographic, evolutionary, and cultural-evolutionary dynamics, in order to better understand the transition.”
Neanderthals Walked Upright Just Like the Humans of Today (University of Zurich). Strike another blow to the image of a stooped-over caveman.
Neanderthals are often depicted as having straight spines and poor posture. However, these prehistoric humans were more similar to us than many assume. University of Zurich researchers have shown that Neanderthals walked upright just like modern humans – thanks to a virtual reconstruction of the pelvis and spine of a very well-preserved Neanderthal skeleton found in France.
The writer of this press release takes refuge in passive voice sentences. Who depicted them with poor posture? Evolutionists. Who assumed they were dissimilar to us? Evolutionists. This is a way to dodge accountability with Tontological writing, incorrectly drawing everybody into their own error.
Exceptionally high δ15N values in collagen single amino acids confirm Neandertals as high-trophic level carnivores (PNAS). All this says is that Neanderthals ate meat. The authors call them “carnivores.” It’s true, but it sounds demeaning, like they were mere animals on the same level as tigers or lions. If you enjoy cheeseburgers, filet mignon, or salmon fillet, would you appreciate being called a carnivore? Hopefully that is not the only trait that defines you, and it should not define Neanderthals.
Older conceptions of Neanderthals assumed they were much more primitive than humans. This reconstruction by Frantisek Kupka, with aid from paleontologist Marcellin Boule, appeared in The Illustrated London News in 1909. (Boston Globe)
Brain Evolution: Mapping the Inner Neandertal (Current Biology). Sherwood and Bradley point out some surprising consequences of the surprising discovery that Neanderthals interbred with “modern” humans (notice the implied historical racism).
This means that there are billions of people walking the earth today that carry the DNA of Neandertals. There is more Neandertal DNA in the world now than at any other time in history.
The authors focus on the ‘globularity’ of the skull as something that is ‘uniquely human,’ but admit that evolutionists ‘are just scratching the surface’ to understand variability in humans. They insist on calling anyone else than our brand “archaic” humans – a slur against which Neanderthals are not present to defend themselves.
Neanderthals may have been sprinters not endurance runners (New Scientist). Evolutionists are prone to portray Neanderthals as hairy, naked and possessed of blank expressions. This is no exception, starting with exactly that kind of image. But at the same time, the article debunks another Neanderthal myth. Using another Tontology, the author says:
We may have to rewrite what we know about Neanderthals — they were sprinters rather than long distance joggers, and occupied forests, not bleak tundra-like wasteland….
However, a new analysis suggests a different view. “A closer look at the layers in which their fossils are found suggest Neanderthals actually lived at the same times and places as animals that are associated with warmer, woodland ecologies,” says John Stewart at the University of Bournemouth, who led the study.
If you have to rewrite something you knew, did you really ever know it? You don’t have to revise knowledge. You revise myths. Another myth was left unstated: the idea that all Neanderthals were one thing or the other. Consider the Olympics. Don’t we have events for both long distance runners and sprinters among ‘modern humans’? We don’t know the degree of variance in the abilities of Neanderthals. It’s illogical to infer that one trait possessed by one or a few skeletons represents the entire population.
Humans Did Not Wipe Out the Neanderthals, New Research Suggests (Live Science). Another myth explodes: that more-evolved ‘modern humans’ wiped out the brutish Neanderthals once they had to compete in evolutionary fitness. It was a nice myth that fit the Darwinian picture of competition and struggle. Alas, the longer overlap in time and sexual dalliances between the groups suggest that the alleged extinction of Neanderthals “might have been more complex and drawn out than previously thought,” this article sheepishly admits. Since we have their genes, and they had our ancestors’ genes, maybe we are them, and they are us.
A more modern depiction shows Neanderthals as strong, thoughtful, and culturally astute. What’s the difference? image by Mauro Cutrona.
Trail of feathers to the Neanderthal mind (Nature). Veteran paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood reviews Clive Finlayson’s newest book, The Smart Neanderthal. Finlayson believes Neanderthals were our cognitive equals. Wood provides a readable account of the history of Neanderthal discoveries, and almost agrees with Finlayson that their feather collections from a wide variety of species indicates cognitive sophistication. But, he ends, “We need to find more sites in which Neanderthals were put through their behavioural paces.” How many instances does it take, though? If you found one smartphone, you’d understand a lot about modern humans’ cognitive sophistication.
Update 3/08/19: Rabbit bones suggest Neanderthals were better hunters than we thought (New Scientist). This article shares new evidence published in Science Advances that Neanderthals hunted rabbits. The significance of this is that rabbits are hard to catch, requiring great skill in hunting such nimble, fleet-footed small mammals that dart this way and that (try it some time). Evolutionists believe Neanderthals, and maybe even their ‘ancestors’ Heidelberg Man were catching rabbits 400,000 years ago, even before they had invented arrows or spears. This would be right around the oldest alleged age of Neanderthals. The surprised paleoanthropologists found evidence of rabbit bones in some of the oldest habitats of Neanderthals, admitting that this contradicts evolutionary expectations: “the frequent exploitation of leporids [rabbits] documented here implies that human diet breadths were substantially more variable within Europe than assumed by current evolutionary models.”
Evolutionary scientists have been so, so, so wrong about our Neanderthal brethren. What is it going to take to get them to take responsibility for promoting fake science, and to repent, and vow never again to commit such abominations in the name of science?