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Researchers have said that modern human beings and not the brow-ridged, large-nosed Neanderthals may be the oddity in the history of human evolution. Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University, in his study in the journal of Current Anthropology said that study based on fossils has revealed that the straight line from chimps to the common ancestor should go down to the Neanderthals, and modern humans should be the off branch. For his study, Prof Trinkaus examined fossil records identifying traits, which seemed to be genetic markers—those not greatly influenced by environment, life ways and wear and tear. He was careful to examine traits that appear to be largely independent of each other to avoid redundancy. His findings revealed that modern humans and not Neanderthals belonged to the unusual group. "I wanted to see to what extent Neanderthals are derived, that is distinct, from the ancestral form. I also wanted to see the extent to which modern humans are derived relative to the ancestral form. What I came up with is that modern humans have about twice as many uniquely derived traits than do the Neanderthals," said Prof Trinkaus. "In the broader sweep of human evolution, the more unusual group is not Neanderthals, whom we tend to look at as strange, weird and unusual, but it’s us—Modern Humans. The more academic implication of this research is that we should not be trying to explain the Neanderthals, which is what most people have tried to do, including myself, in the past. We wonder why Neanderthals look unusual and we want to explain that. What I’m saying is that we’ve been asking the wrong questions," he added. He said researchers have for so long looked the wrong way at our ancient ancestors. "The most unusual characteristics throughout human anatomy occur in Modern Humans. If we want to better understand human evolution, we should be asking why Modern Humans are so unusual, not why the Neanderthals are divergent. Modern Humans, for example, are the only people who lack brow ridges. We are the only ones who have seriously shortened faces. We are the only ones with very reduced internal nasal cavities. We also have a number of detailed features of the limb skeleton that are unique," he said. "Every palaeontologist will define the traits a little differently. If you really wanted to, you could make the case that Neanderthals look stranger than we do. But if you are reasonably honest about it, I think it would be extraordinarily difficult to make Neanderthals more derived than Modern Humans," he added. — ANI
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