Neanderthal Child (above) -- One blogger had this to say about the recent science relating to neanderthals: Most people probably still think of Neanderthals as knuckle-dragging brutes, but recent science seems to be pointing in the other direction. Although they were a little shorter than we are, their arms were in the same proportions as ours, and their brain cases were actually significantly larger. Facial reconstruction of a female child from a skull found in Gibraltar shows a girl better looking than some of those I went to grade school with. Evidently the Cro-Magnons thought so too, as we have found evidence of Neanderthal genes in a several Northern European ethnic groups. Dr. Cuozzo on Neanderthals
http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v8/i2/fossil.asp
The first part about his experience in the French museum is eye opening! It brings to light this quote:
"Perhaps more than any other science, human prehistory is a highly personalized pursuit, the whole atmosphere reverberating with the repeated collisions of oversized egos. The reasons are not difficult to discover. For a start, the topic under scrutiny—human origins—is highly emotional, and there are reputations to be made and public acclaim to be savoured for people who unearth ever older putative human ancestors. But the major problem has been the pitifully small number of hominid fossils on which prehistorians exercise their imaginative talents."
(Roger Lewin, "A New Focus for African Prehistory," in New Scientist, September 29, 1977, p. 793.)
- Erik Trinkaus, "Hard Times Among the Neanderthals,"
Natural History, 87:10, p. 58.
"Normal human brain size is 1450cc-1500cc. Neanderthal's is 1600cc. If his brow is low, his brain is larger than modern man's." Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 87.
"The cranial capacity of the Neanderthal race of Homosapiens was, on average, equal to or greater than that in modern man." *Theodosius Dobzhansky," Cahnging Man", in Science, Janurary 27. 1967, p. 410.
"The [Neanderthal] brain case on the average was more than 13 percent larger than that of the average of modern man." Erich A. von Fange, "Time Upside Down," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1974, p.23
