Does the reconstructed Neandertal look like someone you know? I was talking to a friend and he mentioned it looked like a friend, and I immediately thought of some dude I know.
Update: A reader says that the Neandertal looks like Pete Postlethwaite.
Update II: Sandman has more.
Update III: Some are saying Heath Ledger....
looks a bit like Pete Postlewhite
http://www.tribute.ca/tribute_objects/images/stars/pete_postlethwaite.j…
I'd hit it.
I heard the hypothesis that Neanderthals had less sex-role differentiation than men, and some folks apparently think that's why they died out, cause humans could partition specialized roles for men and women and utilize better resources.
Maybe they had less sex dimorphism than us?
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/080122/Heath-Ledger-Roar_l.jpg
So... the Neanderthals went extinct because their wimmin looked like Pete Postlethwaite.
If you think it's hard to get pandas to get it on...
Paging Mr. Sassoon ... Mr. Vidal Sassoon ....
Posterwaite only looks similar if you consider the nose only.
Just like a case could be made for Karl Malden, on that basis.
But looking at the image in totality, you'd pick someone more like Val Kilmer...
A profile shot would be helpful
Neg - they give one in the National Geographic photo gallery. Brilliant stuff - absolutely brilliant.
"So maybe it's a good thing to eat your conspecifics," says Pääbo.
Sounds like a variation on a Jack Nicholson line from the movie Pritzi's Honor: "Do I eat her or do I marry her?"
Looks kinda like the girl in the sidebar to me. (Well, maybe after she spent a week lost in the woods.)
It looks like a younger Roger Waters.
It's Heath Ledger, right down to the nose shape.
And the really interesting thing is that they're both extinct, Matt. (The kid is a hybrid.) Who says there's no such thing as coincidence?
Nutz - I did of course mean Prizzi's Honor. Kathleen Turner was gorgeous in that movie.
All you men can manage is to STARE AT OUR BROWS as though we didn't notice!!! Give me a break!
Oh, there are women who look like that. (In Germany.)
Sarah Palin?
Dude looks like a lady!
No, it's Val Kilmer!
Facial reconsruction, whern it comes to "looks like" is utter fantasy. There is a simple experiment that can be easily done - has it actually be done?
Take a picture of a bunch of dead persons who agreed to give an anatomical gift (there must be many!). Do the fancy-shmancy facial reconstructions from the bones. Deliver results of "before" and "after" to blind testers. See what success rate they have in matching skulls to actual people.
DK - How about this?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7591945.stm
She's a forensic anthropologist who does work for police investigations. I assume they are not indulging in fantasy when they use her work.
It seems that forensic facial reconstruction does not meet the exacting standard required to make it admissable as expert witness testimony in court, but it is still used to aid in identification in criminal cases.
That doesn't make it utter fantasy, it makes it approximate and not completely reproducible.
In this case, I'd rather have an approximation than nothing.
Heath Ledger is much prettier.
Where's her jutting brow?
In any case I don't think she looks like a man. She just needs a little blush to bring out those cheekbones.
Postlethwaite's most unusual characteristic is his cheekbones and Neanderthals had huge cheekbones, so yes .
Neaderthals didn't have needles - so without tailored clothing they survived in sub-zero temperatures. Therefore they were "as furry as bears" according to Peter Frost who also says:
"If you could meet a Neanderthal face to face you wouldn't think it was human. It would look like a big ape. Nor would its behaviour change your initial impression"
thanks for the manipulation...