[Taxacom] neanderthal reconstruction

[John Grehan]

Apologies for a non-taxonomic comment - although taxonomists dealing with
fossils are sometimes caught up in this activity so perhaps marginally
relevant. Just noticed the 'upgrade' given neanderthal males
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/87adca35-c8ca-37a9-a29c-033590dbf509/ss_turns-out-scientists-weren%27t.html

Now they are clean shaven but still have problems with the hairdo - perhaps
implicitly suggesting that neanderthals could figure out a really good
razor but still found scissors or their equivalent a little beyond them.
The hairstyle looks like it's been hacked by a six-year old. No wonder the
individual looks a bit unhappy. Somehow they learned nothing from their
better styled ancestors.

Reconstructing fossils is often where a bit of science fiction combines
with science to generate some rather problematic hybrids. Textbooks now
often comment on cultural biases that affected reconstruction of
neanderthals, but such biases are still in evidence today.

Oh, one other classic sleight of hand that scientists so often engage in
where their lack of imagination is dusted under the rug as 'progress' when
they say (as always) "A "plethora of new discoveries" over the past decade
has shown that modern humans, or Homo sapiens, reached parts of the Asian
continent much earlier than previously thought, said the report." - as if
no one could have credibly thought otherwise - but now we know better kind
of argument. I should write a book on all the "earlier than previously
thought' declarations out there, but probably no one would want to read it
:)
.
John Grehan

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