Claim CC051:

Neanderthal man was reconstructed from a fossil skeleton badly deformed by disease. Neanderthals really are not much different from modern humans.

Source:

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here? Brooklyn, NY, p. 95.

Response:

  1. An early stereotype of Neanderthals was that they were stooped, very hairy, and had divergent big toes. Straus and Cave (1957) showed that they were fully human in posture. However, Neanderthals do have distinctive features that distinguish them from modern humans (Straus and Cave 1957). Some of these features -- powerful bones and muscles, in particular -- cannot plausibly be attributed to pathology or injury.

  2. Neanderthals are known from many specimens. It is extremely unlikely that all of them would be suffering from exactly the same illness.

Links:

Foley, Jim. 2002. Creationist arguments: Neandertals. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/a_neands.html

References:

  1. Straus, W. L. Jr. and A. J. E. Cave, 1957. Pathology and the posture of Neanderthal man. Quarterly Review of Biology 32(4): 348-363.
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created 2003-6-24