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A comment on Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than We Imagined. Parent comment

Re:Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than W... by grondilu on Saturday September 23, 2017 @05:05PM (#15321723)
> by the artificial lines we've drawn in the sand.

You make it sound like the distinction was completely arbitrary or something. There are anatomical differences that justified the separation into different species, from a classical point of view.

Now, the concept of species is blurry and genetic analysis shows that Neanderthal and Sapiens did interbreed. Nevertheless, the anatomical characteristics of Sapiens remained, and none of the Neanderthal ones. Therefore it seems to me that the distinction into different species remains pertinent.

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Re:Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than W... by pvaldes on Saturday September 23, 2017 @06:30PM (#15322139)
> none of the anatomical characteristics of Neanderthal remained

Red hair and green eyes came probably from them

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Re:Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than W... by fish_fan on Saturday September 23, 2017 @07:54PM (#15322434)
Err, isn't use of morphological classification to define species of animals super outdated? I was under the impression it was more useful to define which groups of animals could produce viable offspring. In this definition, neanderthals would be a subspecies, not a distinct species in itself. This seems both more correct and more useful.
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Re:Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than W... by grondilu on Saturday September 23, 2017 @08:01PM (#15322467)
> Err, isn't use of morphological classification to define species of animals super outdated?

It's still the best you have in most cases, notably in the fossil record.

I'm no expert but I believe that the concept of species is becoming more and more problematic nowadays. There is a wikipedia article about it[1]. So, it's complicated.

That being said, even if Neanderthal seems to have interbred with Sapiens, as far as I know, nobody seriously thinks this should revise its status as a separate species.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem

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Re:Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than W... by danieltillett on Saturday September 23, 2017 @09:44PM (#15322802)
Let me introduce you to the Occipital bun [0].

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occipital_bun

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