Wrong damn species

[E.P. Grondine]

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/0 ... s-ago?lite

And "extinction" of Neandertal:
http://natureblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/ ... -dogs.html
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues ... -have-it/1
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/a ... ls/257145/

Who do they think taught Homo Sapien to domesticate dogs, anyway?

[Minimalist]

It was discussed briefly elsewhere but it seems that lately there has been a trend towards pushing dates earlier and earlier possibly as a result of refinements in C14 testing. Researchers do not always take into account the impact their decisions/findings have on others. For example, there was a recent finding that HNS was extinct earlier than thought but since we know there was interbreeding between HNS and HSS - if such distinctions even matter - all it means is that HSS made contact with HNS earlier than anticipated. This could be another example of the trend. Of course, unless some way is found around the 50,000 ybp effective limit of C14 we are merely going to end up with everything piled up at that date.

However, IIRC, the Denisovans were also found in the Altai range, so your basic observation remains valid. They don't know who did it.

[E.P. Grondine]

It was discussed briefly elsewhere but it seems that lately there has been a trend towards pushing dates earlier and earlier possibly as a result of refinements in C14 testing. Researchers do not always take into account the impact their decisions/findings have on others. For example, there was a recent finding that HNS was extinct earlier than thought but since we know there was interbreeding between HNS and HSS - if such distinctions even matter - all it means is that HSS made contact with HNS earlier than anticipated. This could be another example of the trend. Of course, unless some way is found around the 50,000 ybp effective limit of C14 we are merely going to end up with everything piled up at that date.

However, IIRC, the Denisovans were also found in the Altai range, so your basic observation remains valid. They don't know who did it.

Hi min -

We do not know whether the common DNA between HS and HN comes from interbreeding or genetic survival from a common ancestor. The problem is that the rate of genetic change is unknown, and that is why you contradictory new findings published by palaeogeneticists every other week. Most of the syntheses ignore the early fossil data from Asia.

The 14C re-calibrations have helped only a little with recent events. Other isotopic methods are used to estimate the earlier dates which are of more interest in regards to this.

[Minimalist]

or genetic survival from a common ancestor.

My money is on Erectus.

[E.P. Grondine]

My money is on Erectus.

Close, but from the data I've seen it was a "robust" Erectus.

In any case, if you could only get the physical anthropologists to agree on a terminology that accords with all of the data...

[Minimalist]

What we need is a specimen of Erectus dna.