Fascinating News About Neanderthals

The National Geographic has an article up about the passing of the Neanderthals, "our closest prehistoric relatives" (though not, it appears, our ancestors: DNA evidence suggests early humans probably did not interbreed with Neanderthals).

In a section close to my own heart, the story agrees with prior reports that some Neanderthals had red hair and freckles--although, again, their gene for the trait is different from ours, which suggests that it evolved independently. (This adds weight to my own claim that red hair is just that awesome: it had to be evolved!)

There are also some cool images of what these people might have looked like. 

It certainly makes you think...here were these people almost the same species as us. Although they died out too long ago to make speculation very meaningful (the article wonders whether humans share responsibility for that, but thinks that in all likelihood there were, at least, other factors involved), you have to kind of wish we could meet them.

I thank Dangerous Intersection for pointing this out.