Non-Africans Are Part Neanderthal, Genetic Research Shows

[Jordan~]

See, if I'd been in some sort of weird navy where it's just me and a lot of women for ten years and he was all that was on offer when I got back, I'd hit it. And I have modern standards of attractiveness!

 

[EditorOne]

I merely wish to inquire if I missed the compelling evidence that Neanderthals did nothing with their hair except let it grow and get dirty, while homo sapiens was spiffy and fashionable. All the Neanderthal depictions I've seen show creatures with less concern for the hair on their head than the average dog. Why is that?

 

[Jordan~]

How well they kept their hair would depend a lot on who you asked. It was probably not exactly better kempt than a dog's hair for either H. sapiens or H. s. neanderthalensis, but neanderthalensis had more of it. It's not as if either of them were totally unhygienic, though; they probably spent quite a lot of time grooming eachother, if other great apes and some human cultures that have no qualms with physical contact are anything to go by.

They probably would have been pretty shaggy. But on the other hand, reconstructions are quite expensive, so there may be the motive of giving the public what they want: a picture of a hairy, unwashed caveman.