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11/28/2007: "Humans wiped out dumber relatives"

A study tracing how head lice evolved in tandem with their hominid hosts has shown that Homo erectus died out as recently as 25,000 years ago. This is considerably later than scientists had believed: the species is said to have lived between 1.9 million and 400,000 years ago, though one set of fossils has been dated to 50,000 years ago.

The findings mean that Homo erectus must have coexisted with its taller, bigger-brained descendant Homo sapiens for tens of thousands of years. The two came into close contact suspiciously soon before one went extinct.

Many scientists already think that the demise of the Neanderthals, who are known to have lived alongside Homo sapiens in Europe about 30,000 years ago, was caused by modern humans, whether by deliberate genocide or indirect competition. The new research raises the possibility that we are a race of fratricidal serial killers with a second set of relatives’ blood on our hands.

[ An older article reminding us that history has been a process of the smarter wiping out the dumber, and that having positive consequences. Until now, when the dumber are wiping out the smarter! Oops. ]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article490314.ece