Quote:
Originally Posted by questor
Maybe you didn't understand my question. If there was a common ancestor of the N's and the S's 400,000 years ago--which primate was it? If the N's were in Europe, where were the S's during that time and which excavations show that fact? It seems that Sapiens appeared suddenly around 70,000 years ago. Where was he until then?
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What you are asking is a little simplistic questor, first of all the ancestor was a hominid, a specialized type of primate. Homo habilis was close to being their common ancestor but Homo habilis didn't just suddenly diverge into the two species there were intermediate steps as well. Most modern sources put Homo sapiens back to around 150,000 years ago. Neanderthals would be a bit further at around 300,000 years ago. some say both groups didn't appear until about half that. The split that would eventually lead to the two species was further back than that. Neanderthals had more than one ancestor after the split and so did Sapiens. Homo heidelbergensis, and Homo rhodesiensis were before Neanderthals, this means it's incorrect to think of a common ancestor that gave rise directly to either hominid. I think i remember reading the two linages probably diverged around 600,000 years ago.
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