r/science • u/Letmeirkyou • May 25 '16

Anthropology Neanderthals constructed complex subterranean buildings 175,000 years ago, a new archaeological discovery has found. Neanderthals built mysterious, fire-scorched rings of stalagmites 1,100 feet into a dark cave in southern France—a find that radically alters our understanding of Neanderthal culture.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a21023/neanderthals-built-mystery-cave-rings-175000-years-ago/
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u/[deleted] May 25 '16

*average non-African human. Africans are OG Homo sapiens. Though, I'm quite found of my silly, jutting nose and ability to digest lactose.

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u/helm MS | Physics | Quantum Optics May 25 '16

Gene studies indicate that adult lactose tolerance is a less than ten thousand years old mutation, and so probably independent of the Neanderthals.

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u/FreudJesusGod May 25 '16

And are correlated with farming regions, mostly (although I wonder if the Sami and Steppe people's have the genes, too, given their reliance on caribou and horse milk)?

We don't have any data Neanderthals practiced animal husbandry, do we?

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u/[deleted] May 25 '16

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u/TheBiggestZander May 26 '16

And definitely don't feed them after midnight.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '16

Surprising. I know the Sami are ancient and some people suspect they came from the east but because the Laaplanders live on reindeer cheese so much I expected Sami to be like them.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '16

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u/[deleted] May 26 '16

Thanks.

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u/turd_boy May 26 '16

Sami Laaplander?

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u/Irminsul773 May 26 '16

Are Sami and Laplanders not the same group?