(re-posted from the old forum, to allow people to reply!)
I'm looking for background on the Neanderthal species versus subspecies question. Particularly the rationales used before the mtDNA sequencing evidence. I have a question in my OU course which is asking about it, but it only wants 100 words, and from the source material I think it's only expecting an answer quoting the mtDNA evidence.
However, it's a question which I've never really felt happy with - how are such closely related fossils identified and categorised? Especially when there is such an overlap in both time and place of the fossil evidence. And what about when you have only limited fossils? As I understand it, while we now have several full skeletons, for a long time there was only one, and most of the rest was fragments.
One article I read pointed me at the technologies used - that the Neanderthals had (only?) Mousterian tools, while Homo sapiens was using more advanced toolkits.
My understanding is that the mtDNA sequencing (I think this is referring to the 1987(?) sequencing effort, not the most recent full genome) points to a Last Common Ancestor between modern humans and the Neanderthal sample existing well before the Last Common Ancestor of all modern humans.
If anyone would be so kind as to fill in the gaps in my knowledge - or at least suggest some decent resources - I would be most grateful. Perhaps even to the point of a beer (or equivalent beverage of choice) should a meet ever actually take place!
I'm looking for background on the Neanderthal species versus subspecies question. Particularly the rationales used before the mtDNA sequencing evidence. I have a question in my OU course which is asking about it, but it only wants 100 words, and from the source material I think it's only expecting an answer quoting the mtDNA evidence.
However, it's a question which I've never really felt happy with - how are such closely related fossils identified and categorised? Especially when there is such an overlap in both time and place of the fossil evidence. And what about when you have only limited fossils? As I understand it, while we now have several full skeletons, for a long time there was only one, and most of the rest was fragments.
One article I read pointed me at the technologies used - that the Neanderthals had (only?) Mousterian tools, while Homo sapiens was using more advanced toolkits.
My understanding is that the mtDNA sequencing (I think this is referring to the 1987(?) sequencing effort, not the most recent full genome) points to a Last Common Ancestor between modern humans and the Neanderthal sample existing well before the Last Common Ancestor of all modern humans.
If anyone would be so kind as to fill in the gaps in my knowledge - or at least suggest some decent resources - I would be most grateful. Perhaps even to the point of a beer (or equivalent beverage of choice) should a meet ever actually take place!