Homo Sapien Kills Neanderthal in Iraq War 0

A homo sapiens (though not any particular homo sapiens) is suspected in the killing of a homo neanderthalensis between 50 and 75 thousand years ago. As there is no statute of limitations on murder, the investigation continues, albeit with little hope of finding the suspect.

OK, I’m mostly joking about the Iraq War and about any murder investigation. Further, I mean no insult to Iraqis and am not implying that today’s Iraqis are Neanderthals.

Anyway, the article makes an interesting read about a case where we have reason to believe a homo sapiens did kill a neanderthal, long a question in the debate about the role of homo sapiens, if any, in the extinction of neanderthals.

Human Stabbed a Neanderthal, Evidence Suggests

Note that since the word human may be applied to any member of the homo genus, I have a bit of a problem with the Live Science headline. Though, they do get it correct in the text of the article for anyone who bothers to read more than just the headline.

Thanks to Jan for the find.

Interesting Unrelated Evolution Aricles

Here are three very interesting articles about evolution. They are not in any other way related to each other, except that each is interesting news. The first talks about a possible split in the human species at a time when there were just 2,000 of us on the planet. *

What is the Sustainable Human Population for this Planet?

First and foremost, I must state that this write-up is hatched out of my own little brain and is not intended to be truly scientific. It probably does not even qualify as a SWAG (scientific wild-assed guess).

That said, perhaps it will ring true through plain ordinary logic with a few facts mixed in. Please let me know where I have gone wrong on this. I have attempted to deliberately over-estimate the population to come up with what would be considered a less unpleasant number by all but the most misanthropic among us.