American Southwest.

in cyberspace as gnxp readers.

they used to be known as the Golden Hordes and struck terror into the hearts of the Roman and Chinese empires alike, originated somewhere in Central Asia ...

Neanderthals were not replaced by "moderns", but were assimilated. The assimilation led to major gene exchange in both directions with moderns becoming cold-adapted, and Neanderthals getting a cognitive upgrade.

As a result, Neanderthals came to look modern, partly due to direct pleiotropic effects of cognitive-upgrade genes, and partly to convergent evolution due to the Neanderthals' new, modern, lifestyle.

Genetically speaking, the result is a gentle cline of increasing density of Neanderthal genes in the genome, reaching an almost pure Neanderthal-by-descent population in central Finland.

...well, that's my guess

okay. homo sapien males are actually neanderthals.

Creationists.

The habitats least suited for and especially Neolithic lifestyles. Expanding HSS hunters-gatherers might have absorbed some genes from ancient populations.

Most likely places:
(1) outskirts of SE Asian island chains (Flores, ex), including Australia.
(2) North Siberia.
(3) Outer edges of NW Europe.

I'd expect any surviving Erectus genes to be at a *low* frequency in any modern population. They also might have been absorbed in a demic "wave of advance" and beneficial genes incorporated into modern HSS anyway - by a slow process rather than "pockets of pure Neanderthal/Erectus."

I'll second the vote for the Almas that someone mentioned in the previous thread.

Hawaii and polynesia?
well, you said we'd never guess.

OK Ive figured it out.

They shrank in size and became the little people of folklore.
Fairies, pixies, leprechauns.

I vote for the Almasti also, primarily because there's an improbable connection between them and the Ebu Gogo of Flores: both the Almasti and Ebu Gogo women are known to sling their very long breasts over their shoulders when running.

How about the Yeti?

How is the work on the Neanderthal genome progressing? Any news?

Samaritans?

That far-north Russian Ethnic Group?

It is now hypothesized that Homo Erectus became extinction as a result of a severe embarrassment event when more evolved hominids made fun of his name.

Sci-fi readers, lovers of first-person shooters, and graphic designers. Also, some rock stars.

Eva Green cuteness. Or you could just buy a copy of the unrated version of "The Dreamers" for just six bucks. Not really very good, but pretty sexy anyway.

If Eva Green is Neanderthal, then Neanderthal looks like a good idea to me.

Damn! I'll need to find a new hiding place.

"If Eva green is Neanderthal, then Neanderthal looks like a good idea to me"

She looks fairly nice.

Oh, c'mon now,

There is no human group i've seen that looks remotely neanderthid, based on what i've observed of neander skulls..

Some groups look more archaic & others more modern, but[almost] all like sapiens just the same.

I have seen some humans that resemble Proconsul, though, lol:)

Wow, maybe I said that, but looking at her pic I don't think she looks Neandertal a-tall.

I do think that European beauties tend to look like hot little cro-Magnon savages. The type that can really shake a booty around the campfire.

Green looks like Isabelle Adjani who is half Berber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Isa...Isabelle_Adjani

Green's mom was born in Algiers, but is probably ethnically French, whatever that is.

As to where the modern Neanderthals would be...my guess would be some remote part of China.

I still suspect modern morphology, including the various racial types, are largely the products of sexual selection since the Neolithic. In other words, people preferred those who looked "normal" or "pretty" by their group's standards, and just a few groups expanded massively, spreading their aesthetic and genes around.

If this is the case, then there's no people with Erectus genes would look like fossil Erectines. They might instead have Erectine genes for metabolism, or heat retention, or parasite resistence, or etc. Morphology is a product not just of heredity, but of environment, and modern HSS (probably even "primitive" HG) lived in a very different environment than Erectines did.

Erectines were more like bears or wolves in a sense than modern HS are - much less reliance on technology. Much less room to be "pretty" rather than tough. Modern HS are (as Darwin said) *weak* animals who survive by strong social networks and division of labor. Erectines, much less so.

The ainu?

Everybody?

Hey, *I* took that picture. Give some props where props are due. & The red added to the eyes is unnecessary...that baby was EVIL.

Hey, thanks. I was just giving you flack. GOD that baby was evil...

"mine eyes have seen the end of days...for he crawled toward me with demon speed!"

Yeah, primitive. There is something about a pretty girl who has a slight touch of the savage in her features that really brings out the cave in the man.

BTW this also illustrates how modern photography has created "the star." I've seen Julia Stiles up close & personal (she lives not far from me and occasionally hangs out at a certain Starbucks) and she doesn't primitif at all in person. She's very pure & angelic looking actually.

Colin McEvedy once suggested that Neanderthals, suitably shaved and clad, would occasion no surprise if seen strolling on the banks of the Liffey. Just teasing, I suppose.

Diana, Razib,

What exactly do you see as primitive or savage in Eva Green - the large teeth?

I find her very attractive, but definately in the modern human range of appearance.

A bathed, shaved, perfumed, dressed Neanderthal could walk in the street without calling much attention. He could easily win any body building competition. He could learn to say "Hasta la vista, Baby" and become a film star. He could be elected Governor of California.

I like Diana's descriptions of what can go into a movie star. Young French actresses in interviews often like to go on in similar ways: "I am a wild animal, I must do what I feel ..." etc etc. Yet they often have something exquisite about them too.

Actually, that's a very French thing: that combo of the exquisite and the bloodthirsty/sauvage that's then "appreciated" in a lip-lickin' connoisseurship kinda way. Yeah, baby! French culture generates this kind of creature (and this kind of experience) over and over again, in a very ritualistic way. I have a theory that they actually breed-to-type, if unconsciously: that French taste is so well-defined (and strict, if a little "wild" too) that they keep kicking out identifiable types -- the Eric Rohmer Parisienne, the sexy-peasant Depardieus, the tragedienne who's born to play the reaching-her-sexual-maturity older woman ...

I think that where the whole appreciating-movie-stars thang is concerned, Americans aren't ... I dunno. Cutthroat or cold-blooded enough. We're earnest patsies, always trying to feel something, and (god knows) trying to "identify with" and "root for" someone. We could use a little more engaged-distance ...

"French taste is so well-defined (and strict, if a little "wild" too) that they keep kicking out identifiable types -- the Eric Rohmer Parisienne, the sexy-peasant Depardieus, the tragedienne who's born to play the reaching-her-sexual-maturity older woman ..."

Speaking of which, there is something primitive about the way Gerard Depardieu looks.

He probably wouldn't mind being identified as a Neanderthal. "Mais oui! I am a primitif! A creature of instinct and passion!" Then he'd go out and seize whatever passing woman suited his fancy, and ...

What exactly do you see as primitive or savage in Eva Green - the large teeth?

brows and deep set eyes i think. yeah, sheez hot.

It was the pix of Julia Stiles that brought on the original description from me in that email to Razib. In those particular photos she has something of a brow ridge. But in person, not. I've seen this also in other actresses, maybe not a brow ridge but something else that reminds you of our animal origins.

The 1960s with the advent of long hippie hair and ethnic clothes really brought this out.

There's a print ad that's a perfect illustration of this but I forget the name of it. When I remember I'll send it to Razib.

Two words, pure hottie.

Patrick Ewing is the last of his people.

I think Julia Stiles is kinda hot, but that's just me, I guess...

GNXP stream of consciousness: post an item about the Flores Hobbits, and the comments veer off into discussing Neanderthals. Post on Neanderthals, comments veer off into a survey of hot women (with some awesome links). Gotta love it.

The Otomí people