Neanderthals a sub-species of modern humans?

[Still Waters]

In an extensive, multi-institution study led by SUNY Downstate Medical Center, researchers have identified new evidence supporting the growing belief that Neanderthals were a distinct species separate from modern humans (Homo sapiens), and not a subspecies of modern humans.

http://phys.org/news...ern-humans.html

[+Hammerclaw]

Any study concentrating on bone morphology alone is suspect.

[lightly]

it's an interesting idea. There are hundreds of Species of snakes... why should it be surprising if there were a species very similar to our own?

But, isn't it true that separate species cannot interbreed? and that Neanderthal DNA has been found in some of us?

[+Hammerclaw]

There's always been a sort anthropological apartheid concerning Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. It's as if Neanderthal morphology is an offense to the orderly sensibility of the rise of homo sapiens. The DNA evidence of interbreeding was like a kick in the gut to some anthropologists, the old guard bone men, mostly.

[Peter B]

it's an interesting idea. There are hundreds of Species of snakes... why should it be surprising if there were a species very similar to our own?

But, isn't it true that separate species cannot interbreed? and that Neanderthal DNA has been found in some of us?

Yes, I understand there's Neanderthal DNA in most modern humans. But I don't think that necessarily means modern humans and Neanderthals must therefore be the same species. For example, horses and donkeys are different species but can interbreed, although the offspring are usually sterile.

In the case of us and Neanderthals the issue seems to be exactly how long ago our two populations diverged, and exactly how much contact there was between us. The article points this out too:

Anthony S. Pagano, PhD, anatomy instructor at NYU Langone Medical Center, a co-author, traveled to many European museums carrying a microscribe digitizer, the instrument used to collect 3D coordinate data from the fossils studied in this work, as spatial information may be missed using traditional morphometric methods. "We interpreted our findings using the different strengths of the team members," Dr. Márquez said, "so that we can have a 'feel' for where these Neanderthals may lie along the modern human spectrum."

Co-author William Lawson, MD, DDS, vice-chair and the Eugen Grabscheid research professor of otolaryngology and director of the Paleorhinology Laboratory of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, notes that the external nasal aperture of the Neanderthals approximates some modern human populations but that their midfacial prognathism (protrusion of the midface) is startlingly different. That difference is one of a number of Neanderthal nasal traits suggesting an evolutionary development distinct from that of modern humans. Dr. Lawson's conclusion is predicated upon nearly four decades of clinical practice, in which he has seen over 7,000 patients representing a rich diversity of human nasal anatomy.

(My emphasis)

So there's a recognition that humans and Neanderthals are related, but the issue is where to place this relationship on a continuum.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Peter B