How exactly does evolution work?

I aggree, have no belief that war was the reason they disappeared. But that is an old theory, and considering human history in general, the conclusion by the scientists back then that "they probably went to war and killed em all" seems logical.

Tbh, the neanderthal/human mix sounds very logical to me, and there are a few evidences on this happening, but not anything conclusive yet.
Changes in bone in both races(where the breeds suddenly share the others attributes), similar language gene( a gene that only excisted in humans suddenly showed up in neanderthal dna), gene for red hair etc.. but nothing that really proves anything, and this will be a constant source of debate.

But we will have the answer for if mixing occured, when genome is finally mapped.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061116083223.htm

have you seen a documentary called neanderthal code?very interesting, goes in depth in all theories regarding neanderthals.
http://www.ninjavideo.net/video/57225

Touché. I haven't gone that in-depth into neanderthals, but from what I've read & seen on modern humans out of Africa into Europe recently is the base for my take on neanderthals. One thing though that supports the non-mixing of the two however... If they mixed, Europeans would have different DNA from natives of the Americas. Or the Bushmen for that matter. It is however, much more likely that we mixed with neanderthals than the Chinese theory on them being a separate race/species (whatever their claim is) ^^

Even if they did mix we don't know if their offspring would be able to breed (yet). Oh the neanderthal genome in all honor, but I'm much more looking forward to the rebirth of the mammoth & auroch. I mean imagine going to a zoo and seeing a mammoth... Gonna be a bit more difficult for the creationists to lie to their children. Although I assume a bunch of churches will boycott zoo's with animals brought back from the dead.

Well I came to think of them because of the cavemen & dinosaur living together etc. I don't mind the majority, as they're just misinformed, but then there are those that have read up on evolution and decided that they're going to make money off of misinforming people, and I have no respect for trickery. I've boiled it down and trickery is just the umbrella for basically everything I hate. Whether it's a douche claiming to talk to ghosts, or the guy selling bomb-detectors that work spiritually, or those ads for "I got ripped in only 4 weeks with this secret!". It's all trickery, and I have no patience for it.

Not to mention that misinformation on evolution seems to give people justification to claim that there are races, which let's face it, leads to subtle racism. If people believe we're different races and not ethnicities, it's going to do harm.

See that's what I find so hard to believe. Sure if mixing occurred in Europe it'd be a small part and it would definitely have spread to Asia and northern Africa, no doubt. But when we consider the !Kung San and those who went to the Americas, not to mention Australia, I mean we're talking a small amount of people. The Bushmen I can buy, very improbable in my opinion, but it's entirely possible. However the odds for neanderthal genes making it into both Australia and the Americas, and not being a dead end? I can't even imagine how small they are. Say that Australia was the only continent the neanderthal genes didn't make it into, even though there'd only be a small difference, I think it'd be found.

My guess is that there were children, but that they were like Mules or Ligers, unable to breed on. Or maybe interbreeding did occur, but they were largely shunned and turned out to be genetic dead ends. I don't want to sound like I'm too set in stone with the genetic evidence we have now, but I guess I'm just not seeing how it would work outside the box

Ohyeah, they're few and far between. I think part of the reason is that one needs to be generally on the same page, and not just disagree on things, but have different takes on them. Or maybe it's just that us Scandinavians have such a calm and sophisticated manner 

Gradually. Skin color comes from melanin. The more melanin, the darker the skin. Slowly melanin would decrease, maybe not even visibly to the naked eye the first 10 generations, but gradually it'd decrease. How long time it'd take, I don't know. Maybe it's impossible to know.

The keyword of evolution that is usually forgotten, is gradual. Gradual change. It's like a weatherman forecasting 14 days compared to a climatologist who looks back 30,000 years.

I looked up the project on wikipedia,




Yepp, they're the oldest lineage, probably the closest we can get to the first modern humans. Interesting quote, and I wouldn't be surprised if more differences were found (As they stick out from other Africans quite distinctly), but I highly doubt those differences are linked to neanderthals

I think you misunderstood the point I was making there, it's precisely due to that evidence I thought Australia would show that neanderthal DNA isn't part of us today, as that'd change the story on gene flow to Australia. I came into this thread not knowing all that much about neanderthals, as it is modern humans, evolutionary psychology, and evolution in general that interests me the most. Although having watched the documentary I do believe that it's about time that neanderthals became exciting (just a grunting caveman isn't that fun)

Well you can't really disprove Chinese DNA being no different from any other human DNA, yet they're desperately holding on to the idea of Chinese developing from a different branch of humans. They've got a lot of growing up to do if they want to become the new superpower (not to say the previous superpowers were that old &/or wise all the time XD)

Well Magnus, I think we can conclude a job well done on clearing all misconceptions up, and derailing the thread to being about neanderthals! 

Doubtful. Evolution is chaotic, unpredictable and dynamic process and with so many variables: genes, random mutations, viruses, animals, weather and variations in human behaviour you can expect anything but same result.

That is one form of evolving, the changing of skin color is more adaptive evolution, and the skin gets lighter by reduction of melanin. The change in scenery/climate, forced a change in the skin to adapt to the new enviroment. And its not like they woke up one day and realized they were white, took generations.
As for the mutation, you can call it that, someone (or maybe several) had to be the first with lighter skin(like egg before chicken)before it could be developed further. 1 is born with lighter skin, has kids with someone else with fair skin, etc etc.

Allthough based on chaos theory, it is a possibility that in some regions, the people suddenly saw the birth of a caucasian wich skipped the evolution completely.