Neanderthal discovery MSNBC is reporting (via Reuters) that the remains of a Neanderthal family might have been found in Germany. I've touched on the Out-of-Africa vs. Multiregionalism controversy before. The former explaination seems more plausible to me, but I will admit some of it is professional bias, as I know something about molecular biology and almost nothing more than the lay person about functional morphology (practioners of the former tend to support Out-of-Africa, the latter multiregionalism). Neanderthals are probably the most decisive morphological piece of evidence favoring Out-of-Africa. One thing that caught my attention though:

“There are differences between us and the Neanderthals. They could have contributed to our genetic pool about 30,000 years ago. But that is not clear,” Weniger said. “The Neanderthals were actually quite small, about 5 foot, 4 inches. But it’s true that they had enormous muscles and big bones.”

Well, many modern human populations are actually that size. Perhaps the quotation is out of context, but one should be careful about using these qualitative terms "small" or "large" when the human range is so varied. On a similar note, I knew a girl that looked somewhat like a Neanderthal (and she was actually attractive, believe it or not). She was very promiscuous.