Neanderthal Rise!

Harvard Geneticist George Church has called for someone to carry the seed of primeval man, the neanderthal. We know only what the bone record tells us. The neanderthal's diverged from our common ancestor some 400000 years ago and roamed north. Their bodies were well adapted to the glacial cold of the period, short and stocky. They achieved adulthood by 15 and had superior tool making abilities. Their diet consisted of a great deal of meat. They used largely stone tools, not advancing to bone or other tools. (this reminds me of a study of north American Indians where clay pots, once the manufacture of them began in South Carolina) it took hundreds of years for the technology to move north, need is what drives technology and if stone worked . . .).

Large, powerful, thinking creatures. Whatever woman bares this child, hats off to her!

The neanderthals fell off the circuit some 30000 years ago; perhaps driven to extinction by homo-sapiens as their hunting ground overlapped and the ice age ended. My best guess is that ace age environment could only support so large a population; when the ice changed, the most adaptive species wins out . . . thus the Trolls get to be here.

FANTASTIC article on Neanderthals here.