By James Donahue

One of the mysteries among archaeologists has been the extinction of Neanderthal man after he successfully existed on Earth for nearly 100,000 years.

This big-boned, coarse primate demonstrated some degree of awareness in that he used primitive tools, buried and even left flowers at the graves of the dead, and developed some degree of social life.

Evidence of the Neanderthals died out about 27,000 years ago at about the time it is believed modern man arrived on the scene.

The big questions have been where the Homo sapiens came from so suddenly in the historical record and why Neanderthals disappeared so soon after modern humans arrived. Did we have something to do with the demise of the Neanderthal?

An Austrian-led team of researchers, working on a famous site of 31,000-year-old humanoid bones found in the Mladec Caves in the Czech Republic, suggested in an article in Nature that the bones show evidence of interbreeding.

The bones of six individuals found in the caves are generally regarded as “modern” but some of the skulls show Neanderthal features including heavy brow ridges and a protruding bone in the back of the head. Yet the skeletal remains are found with stone and bone tools, ornaments and other artifacts showing aesthetic artful design, something the primitive Neanderthal did not do.

These characteristics could be explained by interbreeding, or seen as Neanderthal ancestry,” team leader Eva Maria Wild of the University of Vienna was quoted as saying in one report.

Some people would apparently like to reject the idea of modern humans having sex with hairy, smelly and animal-brained humanoids that may have seemed more like apes than humans.

But team member Erik Trinkaus of Washington University, St. Louis, suggests the probability should not be written off.

Either there’s been an evolutionary leveling, or there has been some level of interbreeding, and we will never know how much,” Trinkaus said. “My answer is, why not? They were all dirty and smelly, and didn’t have much opportunity for social activity.”

Indeed, contemporary humans are known to have sex with the animal world. It is a common joke among folks in rural farming communities that certain men are sometimes caught in the barn having sex with sheep, cows and other critters.

One theory as to the origin of the AIDS epidemic is that it sprang from a human that had sexual contact with an ape somewhere on this planet.

If some humans can stoop to these levels in their quest for sexual gratification in modern times, why should we think that early Homo sapiens saw themselves as so high on the social ladder they could not be sexually attracted to other humanoid types that looked almost like them? Wouldn’t this behavior be somewhat akin to racial mixing in contemporary society?

Also consider the probability that a race of aliens came to the planet and genetically manipulated the DNA of a chosen primate to create modern humans. This is a theory that has been seriously considered, especially because of references in ancient books to “gods” coming down to earth and breeding with women. The story also is found in the Book of Genesis.

If we were the product of alien visitors, did they choose the Neanderthal for this successful experimentation? If so, it would help explain why modern man appeared on the planet at about the same time the Neanderthal was phased out.

There is an ancient story half in and half removed from the Book of Genesis about Adam’s first wife, Lilith, who he turned away from. It was said that Adam preferred Eve, who was fair. Was Lilith an ape? Was Adam more attracted to Eve because she was hairless?

The new genetic line appears to have been mixed with the old in the most natural way possible, through interbreeding of the new with the old.