Neanderthal babies!

quote ShinyBibarel

So neanderthal, I'm pretty sure we know what they are, early man.

I think that Neanderthals evolved alongside man as a separate species from a common ancestor. In other words we didn't evolve from them.

I've been thinking about this recently, and I've come to the moral conclusion that we should go ahead with it. Historians think that the reasons the neanderthal went extinct in the first place is due to us humans (directly or no). The catch comes if say, this creature is at our level of understanding. From what paleontologist can gather Neanderthals were capable of fashioning simple tools, fire, and some form of communication (it's not clear what kind due to physiological reasons).

What happens if we bring back a dead sentient species? This Neanderthal might be as smart as anyone of us, is it just to keep him/her locked away for study? I'd say, yes, because sometimes curiosity might just override moral obligation. I would want to know everything about the hominid from start to finish. It's not like we'd raise it to dissect it, seeing it alive and well, to learn it's anatomy with the flesh on the bone would give us so much insight into human evolution.

I don't think that's really PETA's territory. They're awful anyway.

quote wildfire

ShinyBibarel

There's no way to know if the Neanderthal will function in the same way humans do. The biggest benefit that we would see on our side of things is in brain research. Why did we inherit the earth and not them? We want to know that, we want to know how much of a difference 1% of DNA can make.

Agreed, but what if something goes wrong during the pregnancy, and we don't get a developed, or correctly developed neanderthal, and the results from that changes the truth. And what about the mom carying the baby, would the baby accidentlly kill her during the birth process?

quote ShinyBibarel

[quote=wildfire|message:34283778]@ShinyBibarel
And what about the mom carying the baby, would the baby accidentlly kill her during the birth process?

Ok this is basically the same issue that Superman and Lois Lane face, considering the baby would be half neanderthal and half Human, who knows how the DNA would gel, especially 10,000 year old DNA. It would likely be extremely painful cos of heavy set bones, or the baby would be born with some defects that made it incredibly easy.

Taking a step back for science. Sounds legit.

quote Ecto5

My brother told me that one theory why the neanderthals all died out was that the babies heads were very large, and many neanderthal women would die in childbirth, so I highly doubt that any modern woman would be able to do it.

We have the infamous C-Section now.

quote Kanon

Hold on hold on hold on.

Arn't we overlooking that science is saying it can possibly bring back an extinct species here? Isn't that kind of huge? Why are we jumping to Neanderthals? Surely there are plenty of other extinct species with much closer living relatives we should test this on first?

I agree with you Kanon, I would like to see a species brought back instead of a Neanderthal that probably killed it.