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http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060222_neanderthals.html

LONDON (AP)—Neanderthals in Europe were killed off by the advance of modern humans thousands of years earlier than previously believed, losing a competition for food and shelter, according to a scientific study published Wednesday.

The research uses advances in radiocarbon dating to revise understanding of early humans, suggesting they colonized Europe more rapidly and coexisted for a much shorter period with genetic ancestors.

Paul Mellars, professor of prehistory and human evolution at the University of Cambridge and author of the study, said Neanderthals—the species of the Homo genus that lived in Europe and western Asia from around 230,000 years ago to around 29,000 years ago—succumbed much more readily to competition.

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The "Eve" theory makes five predictions that the fossil evidence should prove. The first and major assumption is that modern humans from Africa must have completely replaced all other human groups. Second, implicit within this idea is that the earliest modern humans appeared in Africa. Third, it also follows that the earliest modern humans in other areas should have African features. Fourth, modern humans and the people they replaced should never have mixed or interbred. Fifth, an anatomic discontinuity should be evident between the human fossils before and after the replacement.

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Sounds like more support for the "Out of Africa theory" (also called "Eve" theory), over the "Multiregional theory" of human evolution.

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To Halfmooner: Yay! Another human evolution geek. You can't imagine how it frustrates me when I'm talking to people about evolution and they say "Well how come there aren't any transitional species?" and I say "What about austropithecines, homo habilis, homo erectus, and homo ergaster?" and they what "What?" My minor was physical anthropology so learning this stuff is a hobby for me as well.

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Big Woman with a Distant Past: Stone Age gal embodies humanity's cold shifts

Bruce Bower

A 260,000-year-old partial skeleton excavated in northwestern China 22 years ago represents our largest known female ancestor, according to a new analysis of the individual's extensive remains.

This ancient woman puts a modern twist on Stone Age human evolution, say Karen R. Rosenberg of the University of Delaware in Newark, Lü Zuné of Peking University in Beijing, and Chris B. Ruff of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The fossil individual's large size and the apparent adaptation of her body to cold conditions are "consistent with the idea that patterns of human anatomical variation that we see today have deep evolutionary roots," Rosenberg asserts.

Although the woman belonged to the Homo genus, her species is uncertain. Now known as the Jinniushan specimen, she stood roughly 5 feet, 5-1/2 inches tall and tipped the scales at 173 pounds, the three anthropologists estimate. The only Stone Age Homo woman known to have approached that size weighed an estimated 163 pounds. Her partial skeleton came from a 100,000-year-old Neandertal site in France.

The Jinniushan specimen's size reflects her membership in a population that, as an adaptation for retaining heat in a cold climate, evolved large, broad bodies with short limbs, a shape similar to that of near-polar populations today, the scientists propose in an upcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Originally posted by HalfMooner
In Europe, only the Basque people are known for certain to retain a local pre-Indo-European language, though there are also modern Europeans who are descendants of non-Indo-European people who migrated into Europe.

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I thought Gaelic also counted as an pre-Indo-Europeian language, possible from the same roots as Basque, though far removed.

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Goidelic
Gaelic
Geographic distribution: Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man
Genetic classification: Indo-European
-Celtic
---Insular Celtic
-----Goidelic
Subdivisions:
Irish
Scottish Gaelic
Manx

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That boy, I suspect, may have been an infertile Homo-Neanderthal hybrid.

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You can't imagine how it frustrates me when I'm talking to people about evolution and they say "Well how come there aren't any transitional species?" and I say "What about austropithecines, homo habilis, homo erectus, and homo ergaster?"

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Neanderthals are in the genus Homo. They are typically classified as either Homo sapiens neanderthalensis or Homo neanderthalensis. Like I said a very minor point.

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I saw on a Discovery HD show recently where a theory was discussed that the reason why Neanderthals passed on is that they did not develop advanced communication skills which would have been advantageous in the whole hunting/gathering department.

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Not to mention we are transition species - or the end of the line, I personally am hoping for the former.

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A college minor is deeper, probably far more organized, background than I've got. But reading about the stuff for 50-odd years helps a little.

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