Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Neanderthals Always Hovered On The Verge Of Extinction
According to this New Scientist piece, recent work on mitochondrial DNA from a variety of Neanderthal remains spanning Europe to western Asia - by Adrian Briggs of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig - has concluded that genetic heterogeneity among Neanderthals was much lower than either chimps or modern humans and that, for much of their existence, there were unlikely to have been more than a few hundred thousand Neanderthals spread across this vast geographical area. Small population size, small group size and low genetic heterogeneity are a recipe for extinction. Neanderthals would not have needed roving bands of modern humans attacking them with deadly intent. Deleterious mutations would have done the trick.
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