Related article: Preference", Economic Inquiry, 1981, vol. 19, issue 2, pages 297-332 From checker at panix.com Fri Aug 26 23:58:09 2005 From: checker at panix.com (Premise Checker) Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 19:58:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Paleopsych] Archeology: The New Neandertal Message-ID: The New Neandertal http://www.archaeology.org/0507/etc/letter.html First, the summary from the "Magazine and Journal Reader" feature of the daily bulletin from the Chronicle of Higher Education, 5.8.17 http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/08/2005081701j.htm A glance at the July/August 2005 issue of Archaeology: A different sort of caveman New technology, combined with some very old fossils, is changing established theories about Neanderthals, writes Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the department of human evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig. With their heavy brows and robust bones, Neanderthals were originally viewed as "brutish cave dwellers" much different from today's human beings, says Mr. Hublin. As more research was performed, though, scientists began to see more similarities between the ancient species and Homo sapiens. Through the use of "virtual fossils," a "new" Neanderthal is emerging that is "both very similar to and very different from us," he says. "Virtual fossils" are digitally manipulated projections that allow researchers to imagine missing pieces from existing fossils. For example, if one side of a skull is damaged, its opposite Buy Evecare side can be copied and reversed to create a complete, composite specimen. Using similar technology to examine Neanderthal teeth, researchers have learned that Neanderthals Buy Cheap Evecare reached adulthood approximately three years sooner than Evecare Coupon people do today. Neanderthals and Homo sapiens seem especially similar when researchers consider how much the two differ from apes, says Mr. Hublin. DNA studies of Neanderthals and modern humans, for instance, reveal a limited genetic variation in both that contrasts strongly with the high variability common among African apes. A Neanderthal in a suit and tie would still stand out today, he writes, but "as the last branching of the human evolutionary tree and our closest relatives in the recent past, they will remain an object of popular fascination" and "scientific interest." Perhaps, though, "how we envision Neandertals may tell us as much about the way we see ourselves as about them," writes Mr. Hublin. The article, "The New Neandertal," is available online at http://www.archaeology.org/0507/etc/letter.html --Jason M. Breslow _________________________________________________________________ departments Letter From New York: The New Neandertal Volume 58 Number 4, [4]July/August 2005 by Jean-Jacques Hublin Virtual fossils Buy Evecare Online and real molecules are changing how we view our enigmatic cousin. Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the discovery at Neandertal, a little valley near Duesseldorf in western Germany, of the first recognized fossil humans. The occasion will be commemorated with conferences and exhibitions at major German museums. As a warm-up for this "Neandertal Year," two dozen scholars gathered at New York University this past January, in a Manhattan suffering near-glacial conditions, to exchange views on the latest advances in the field. Our fascination with Neandertals is well founded. They were the first