reply to post by zedVSzardoz
We know that the Neanderthals lived from some 600,000 years ago right up to around 24,000 years ago and that the first modern Humans (Homo Sapiens
Sapiens) cropped up around 200,000 years ago.
DNA evidence states that we, modern Humans, originated in Africa and that we only started migrating out of Africa en-mass around 100,000 years ago.
Clearly there was a very long period of time where we lived right alongside Neanderthals.
It is known that Cro-Magnon man, the direct precurser to modern humans, at least in Europe, inter-bred with them.
Whether this was through peacefull cooperation between the two species or through rape and violence is unclear.
Neanderthals were certainly far stronger than Cro-Magnon man, so its not unreasonable to think that randy Neanderthals would have had no trouble
forcing themselves on any weaker Cro-Magnon females they fancied, given the opportunity.
Warfare between the two species may have been common early on, at least for the first few generations, but despite their greater strength Neanderthals
would have been no match for Cro-Magnon mans far more advanced weapon technology, such as powerfull wooden bows and arrows tipped with razor sharp,
intricately worked flint arrowheads, that would have allowed Cro-Magnon man to kill any Neanderthals they came across from a safe distance.
Neanderthals used stone tipped spears, which they repeatedly thrust outwards with their powerfull arms to kill their prey. However they didn't throw
their spears at their prey like Cro-Magnon man did, meaning they had to get very close to their prey to actually make a kill. This may explain why so
many Neanderthal skeletons show signs of broken bones!
Eventually though it seems that at least some of both species must have put their differences aside to get on with inter-breeding.
Natural selection had ample time to adapt the bodies of Neanderthals for the freezing cold ice-age climate in Europe. Their adaptions to the climate
were primarly: large noses (to help preheat the cold hair that they breathed in), thin lips (to limit the amount of delicate lip area exposed to cold
air), a short stature (to help retain body heat), long, thick hair on their head (to limit heat loss from their heads) and they probably had pale skin
too to let more sunlight get to the cells in their skin that produced Vitamin D. (The sunshine vitamin).
Cro-Magnon man was certainly less adapted to the ice-age climate but they may have had better clothing technology than the Neanderthals and this would
have enabled them to keep even warmer and hunt in colder areas than the Neanderthals could reach.
But what skin colour did the Cro-Magnons have? Does this even matter? Well yes, it does as it would help prove the theory that Cro-Magnon man
descended from largely Albino Negroid tribes that left Africa during the first waves of human migration from 100,000 years ago onwards. DNA evidence
proves that we all originated in Africa, but when did the white Caucasion race actually start?
Even today, 1 in 35 of all Negroids in the world carry the "white gene". This only has a chance of producing an Albino Negroid offspring if both
parents carry the gene. But this isn't a certainty because it can also skip generations.
Probably due to frequent violent episodes of racial/religious distrimination/intolerance the parents of any such "Albinoids" would have segregated
themselves off from the rest of the majority black population.
Over time a tribe of Albinoids, consisting of mostly of Albino Negroids but also some black negroids, would have left Africa for the colder climes of
Europe.
Natural selection would have favoured the lighter skinned Albinoids who were better adapted for the cold climate than their black skinned relatives
and over the span of a few generations most, if not all, of the black Negroids in the tribe would have died out.
Now the next part of the theory states that natural selection again came into play and over many generations their noses between larger, their lips
became thinner, their hair became longer and straighter and thus they came to look more and more like modern white Caucasians. I am not so sure that
natural selection alone would have had enough time to produce these changes However inter-breeding with Neanderthals, who already had all these
traits in their DNA, would have greatly accelerated this change and this is likely to be where the white Caucasian race originated. How long ago this
process ended we may never know, but carefull analysis of several skulls of Cro-Magnon man shows them to be white Caucasian in origin rather than
Negroid. This may point to a much earlier date than previously thought.
It is therefore entirely possible that "fully formed" modern white Caucasians could have already been living in Europe as far back as as 40-50,000
years ago!
edit on 22-1-2013 by ProfessorAlfB because: Spelling errors