RE: Pre-Historic Nookie!
September 14, 2018 at 8:01 am
(This post was last modified: September 14, 2018 at 9:11 am by Hammok Man.)
Danny Vendramini authored Them and Us: How Neanderthal Predation Created Modern Humans
This is a pretty good read. He has a very different take on the relationship between neanderthals and humans. Basically They (HSN) hunted US (HSS) into a genetic bottleneck approximately 40,000 years ago taking place in the western middle east called the Lavant (modern day Sirya, Jordan, Isral, Lebanon). What came out of that bottle neck was in effect modern humans.
Traits like relative hairlessness, erect posture (to the detriment of our spine), and our walking gate became more exaggerated because they gave our HSS ancestors long distance visual clues to better evade potential fatal interactions with groups or even individual HSN.
Violent conflict between HSS and HSN further refined the HSS genetic pool leading to the bottleneck. Groups of HSS who had superior communication skills, superior intellect, and were also physically tough and aggressive tended to survive interactions with HSN better than those who were not.
Sexual traits like permanent female sexual dimorphism but with out clear signs of estrus (HSS are the only great ape where females have no obvious outward sign of estrus), helped to cut down on HSN rapes of HSS.
Vendramini goes on to state that the HSS that came out of the genic bottle neck turned tables on the HSN and began to hunt them down, effectively wiping HSN out in around 10,000 years. Early groups of HSS also were so aggressive that they also wiped out any other more archaic HS species they happen upon, leading to the genetic similarity of modern humans.
I personally think that Vendramini has an unaddressed problem with the theory. If he is correct than HSN-HSS crossbreeding had to have taken place after the genetic bottle neck, when HSS groups had splintered, and some of them had entered the African continent. It makes sense that modern European HSS have more HSN dna (proximity) but according to Vendramini's theory modern African populations should have at least some trace amounts of HSN DNA. I guess it is possible that the HSN dna in African populations became so dilute it cannot be measured, but i don't think it works like that.
This is a pretty good read. He has a very different take on the relationship between neanderthals and humans. Basically They (HSN) hunted US (HSS) into a genetic bottleneck approximately 40,000 years ago taking place in the western middle east called the Lavant (modern day Sirya, Jordan, Isral, Lebanon). What came out of that bottle neck was in effect modern humans.
Traits like relative hairlessness, erect posture (to the detriment of our spine), and our walking gate became more exaggerated because they gave our HSS ancestors long distance visual clues to better evade potential fatal interactions with groups or even individual HSN.
Violent conflict between HSS and HSN further refined the HSS genetic pool leading to the bottleneck. Groups of HSS who had superior communication skills, superior intellect, and were also physically tough and aggressive tended to survive interactions with HSN better than those who were not.
Sexual traits like permanent female sexual dimorphism but with out clear signs of estrus (HSS are the only great ape where females have no obvious outward sign of estrus), helped to cut down on HSN rapes of HSS.
Vendramini goes on to state that the HSS that came out of the genic bottle neck turned tables on the HSN and began to hunt them down, effectively wiping HSN out in around 10,000 years. Early groups of HSS also were so aggressive that they also wiped out any other more archaic HS species they happen upon, leading to the genetic similarity of modern humans.
I personally think that Vendramini has an unaddressed problem with the theory. If he is correct than HSN-HSS crossbreeding had to have taken place after the genetic bottle neck, when HSS groups had splintered, and some of them had entered the African continent. It makes sense that modern European HSS have more HSN dna (proximity) but according to Vendramini's theory modern African populations should have at least some trace amounts of HSN DNA. I guess it is possible that the HSN dna in African populations became so dilute it cannot be measured, but i don't think it works like that.
