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'A common misconception is the things that come from Neanderthals are generally bad,' Prüfer says, 'but that’s not entirely true.'   

New Clues How Neanderthal Genes Affect Your Health

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Speaking of the fossil record, what about the linguistic fossil record? The word Neanderthal is a compound German word: Neander + thal. "Neander" is the name of a river in Germany and "thal" means valley. But not any more. Modern German dropped the "th" spelling (and the "th" sound) [ed.: nice alliteration].

Neandertal is the modern German word. There's even a bit of linguistic residue in English: Tal is cognate with "dale" as in hill and dale.

Homo sapiens' sex with extinct species was no one-night stand

Our species, Homo sapiens, has a more adventurous sexual history than previously realized, and all that bed-hopping long ago has left an indelible mark on the human genome.

Scientists said on Friday an analysis of genetic information on about 1,500 people from locations around the world indicated at least four interbreeding episodes tens of thousands of years ago, three with our close cousins the Neanderthals and one with the mysterious extinct human species known as Denisovans.

People living on the remote equatorial islands of Melanesia represented the only population found to possess an appreciable level of Denisovan genetic ancestry. These Melanesians, like most human populations, also had Neanderthal genetic ancestry.

http://news.yahoo.com/homo-sapiens-sex-extinct-species-no-one-night-012711275.html;_ylt=AwrC1CjvTO1W0yUAth_QtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBydWNmY2MwBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwM0BHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

"Until you’ve had ‘thal, you haven’t had it at all"

Sex with Neanderthals May Explain Modern Allergies.

You may have to pump yourself full of Zyrtec just to step outside during allergy season because your ancestors couldn’t keep their hands off those sexy Neanderthals, suggests two new studies in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Neanderthals and a second now-extinct hominid—Denisovans—were living in Europe and Asia for hundreds of thousands of years before humans arrived and were likely well-adapted to the local pathogens, according to a press release. When humans showed up and started interbreeding, they took on some of the Neanderthal and Denisovan genes. One of the studies reports three genes having to do with ‘innate immunity’ in modern humans show more similarities to Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes than the rest.

Innate immunity is the body's first response to pathogens and other foreign substances, NPR reports. The three genes from Neanderthals and Denisovans "are key components of innate immunity and provide an important first line of immune defense against bacteria, fungi, and parasites," according to the second study. But there's a "trade-off," as researcher Janet Kelso puts it. "I suppose that some of us can blame Neanderthals for our susceptibility to common allergies, like hay fever," she tells NPR. That's because these genes that helped ancient humans ward off disease in a new world can cause the body to overreact to minor foreign substances, such as pollen, according to the press release.

Via Instapundit

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"He'd go down to the lake where all the women would be swimming or washing clothes or something. 

He'd look around and just reach in and grab one. 'Come here...come here'.

He'd grab her by the hair. You can't do that today, fellas, cause
it might come off. You'd have a piece of hair in your hand and she'd
be swimming away from you (ha-ha)."

"Neanderthal 'artwork' found in Gibraltar cave"

"The archaeologist estimates that the full engraving would have required 200-300 strokes with a stone cutting tool, taking at least an hour to create. "[Dolomite] is a very hard rock, so it requires a lot of effort to produce the lines," he told BBC News.

"If you did it in a single session, you would most probably injure your hand, unless you cover your tool with a piece of skin," he said.

Prof d'Errico explained that the rock was in a very visible location in the cave and that the engraving would have stood out to any visitors.

"It does not necessarily mean that it is symbolic - in the sense that it represents something else - but it was done on purpose," he said.

"It's almost like Clapham Junction, like it's showing an intersection. I'm speculating, but it does make you wonder whether it has something to do with mapping, or saying: 'This is where you are'."

Prof d'Errico added: "It's in a fixed location so, for example, it could be something to indicate to other Neanderthals visiting the cave that somebody was already using it, or that there was a group that owned that cave."