Post by Urban Warrior on Jul 25, 2006 9:34:53 GMT
It was the early part of August 1856 when two workers at a limestone quarry found strange-looking bones in a cave they were digging in the Neander Valley east of Dusseldorf. Thinking the bones belonged to a bear, the quarrymen showed them to a local amateur naturalist, Johann Carl Fuhlrott, who identified them as human and very old.
Fuhlrott believed the 16 bone fragments he examined represented the remnants of an ancient human race, different from contemporary humans. But this view was not immediately accepted as it contradicted literal interpretations of the Bible and came before Charles Darwin's work about evolution was published. It took some years before the Neanderthal man gained acceptance as a species of the homo genus that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia. The first proto-Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 350,000 years ago, by 130,000 years ago full blown Neanderthal characteristics had appeared and by 50,000 years ago Neanderthals disappeared from Europe, although they continued in Asia to 30,000 years ago.
More than 300 examples of homo neanderthalensis have been found in different parts of Europe and the Middle East since the original discovery. But the bones found in the Neander Valley remains to this day the most popular and best researched prehistoric man in the world. "The Neanderthals were much further developed than we originally believed," according to Frankfurt-based palaeo-biologist Friedeman Schrenk.
Source: Expatica
Fuhlrott believed the 16 bone fragments he examined represented the remnants of an ancient human race, different from contemporary humans. But this view was not immediately accepted as it contradicted literal interpretations of the Bible and came before Charles Darwin's work about evolution was published. It took some years before the Neanderthal man gained acceptance as a species of the homo genus that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia. The first proto-Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 350,000 years ago, by 130,000 years ago full blown Neanderthal characteristics had appeared and by 50,000 years ago Neanderthals disappeared from Europe, although they continued in Asia to 30,000 years ago.
More than 300 examples of homo neanderthalensis have been found in different parts of Europe and the Middle East since the original discovery. But the bones found in the Neander Valley remains to this day the most popular and best researched prehistoric man in the world. "The Neanderthals were much further developed than we originally believed," according to Frankfurt-based palaeo-biologist Friedeman Schrenk.
Source: Expatica