# Neanderthals **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 1999, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957 "1999-08-31T06:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorge)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 1999, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957/1 "1999-08-31T06:20:00Z")
Occasionally in various works of fiction one comes across “fictoid”/“factoid” references to vestigial populations of humans more closely allied to Neanderthals than to Cro-Magnon (positing Neanderthal lineage to anything from the Basque to Bigfoot to Beowulf’s enemies !) Is this all just coincidental “pigments” of several over-ripe imaginations, or is there some basis for all this ? (real or pseudoscientific, a la Von Daniken) * * * “Proverbs for Paranoids, 1: You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his creatures.” - T.Pynchon, _Gravity’s Rainbow_. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 1999, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957/2 "1999-08-31T16:27:00Z")
There is no actual fact behind it. Some racist theories in the past have been based on the notion. It could happen, in theory, but unless there’s a lost underground civilization somewhere in the Pyrinees, it looks like it ain’t so. * * * John W. Kennedy “Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.” – Charles Williams ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957/3 "1999-09-01T05:08:00Z")
… although there are some antrhopologists who have found evidence recently that could imply that there was some cross-breeding between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. (I’m writing from work, I don’t have the magazine handy, but it was in _Archaeology_ magazine either this month or last month.) ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 1999, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957/4 "1999-08-31T22:06:00Z")
I had a summer McJob a few years back with a coworker who fit the classic Neanderthal body style. He was short, very stocky, and had the flattened, slanted forehead I’ve read about. He was also Robin Williams-hairy. He was a pretty intelligent (and nice) guy, so I never thought much about it except that it was probably my over-active imagination linking him to the characters in Jean Auel’s “Clan of the Cave Bear” series that I had been reading around that time. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 1999, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957/5 "1999-08-31T23:36:00Z")
CkDextHaven: (hope I got that right…) Anyway, I believe _Scientific American_ had a related story maybe a year or so ago. Basically, it implied that it was very likely that Neanderthals ceased to exist because they inter-bred with Cro-Mag man and the C.M. genes took over as there were more C.M. men breding than there were Neanderthals in the first place. So, I guess we all are related 😉 * * * “I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![Pete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Pete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pete)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957/6 "1999-09-01T04:21:00Z")
sorry for being the slow idiot of the post, but what is the difference between neand and C.M.? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neanderthals/2957/7 "1999-09-01T16:09:00Z")
“Cro-magnon” and “Neanderthal” are names of early discoveries, like “Peking Man” and “Java Man”. These names are no longer working scientific terms, except when referring to specific historic specimens – _except_ that “Neanderthal” is actually used as the name of the species Homo neanderthalis (or possibly subspecies Home sapiens neanderthalis). Cro-magnon is Homo sapiens (or subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens). * * * John W. Kennedy “Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.” – Charles Williams