XPost: alt.science, alt.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
https://phys.org/news/2025-05-homo-erectus-seabed-archaeological-discoveries.html
. . .
Yea, yea, know the image the NAME suggests :-)
Dunno, maybe they DID have boners most of
the time :-)
However HE were kind of the "fourth leg" of
modern human development - indeed contemporary
for a certain span. The "legs" are proto-humans
from Africa plus Neanderthals and Denisovans
and, harder to detect, HE - esp perhaps in south
asia.
Alas HE seemed to love the warmer/wetter climes,
environments NOT so favorable for preserving
fossils and DNA. We know a LOT more about the
Neanderthals and Denisovans and proto-humans
(about 300k years, east and north Africa).
The latter HE were of modern human height. The
brains were 'smaller', but maybe they USED them
better so you can't judge IQ strictly from that.
They persisted for about million years - WAY
longer than "us".
My good guess is that, esp in southeast asia,
they ARE a part of the modern genome just like
the Neanderthals and Denisovans. First place
to look would be Oz abo's ... but we just do
not HAVE enough HE data to see how much the
influences may be.
So, HE is the "mystery relative". With modern
sea-level changes a LOT of their residual stuff
may be UNDERWATER - as seen in the article.
This is NOT GOOD for science.
Somewhere, for sure, there are a few HE that
went high altitude or out into more desert
areas. Once found we WILL finally get that DNA
and see how they fit into today's equation.
The Denisovans were totally unknown until
kind of recently. However NOW we can track
their genes from north-central Asia all
the way thru Tibet and S.China and indeed
out into the Pacific islands. They had
an EFFECT.
Oh ... and any "God(s) Just ZAPPED modern
humans into existence" - BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT
and TRIPLE BULLSHIT ! It's been a long strange
trip - hybrids of hybrids of hybrids. Strictly,
"humans" don't exist as a real thing. We are
STILL in flux.
Oh, ever see the old "illustrations" of the
Neanderthals - hairy vicious gorilla-looking.
Hey, only modern Englishmen were modern-
looking ! Recent research suggests the hair
thing went away a LONG LONG time ago ... 'Lucy'
maybe wasn't ideal for a bikini wax, but CLOSE :-)
Neanderthals, eastern Europe, twilight, you
probably couldn't tell them from the farm-boys.
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