Cave crazy

Gah. Just finding being able to concentrate very difficult. I have a thousand ideas, but can't seem to concretise anything. But right now nothing seems more interesting that paleoanthropology. The evolution of early man is fascinating stuff. Watched a bit of The Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog about the Chauvet Cave in France, which Betty got me for Christmas. Lorraine and I had seen it in 3D in the Duke of York's just last year. Knowledge on this subject is growing at an amazing pace. In the documentary for example someone asserts that no art was created by Neanderthals. But only a few months ago images of seals, dating back 43,000 years were found in the Nerja Caves in Spain and are thought to be from Neanderthals. If true this means that current opinion about the nature of Neanderthals has to be re-evaluated. And of course we now know that Neanderthal's contributed to Eurasian DNA too, so these guys are also partially us.

Other hot topics include homo floresiensis, the so called hobbit people whose remains were recently discovered in the island of Flores in Indonesia. Also the denisovians, thought to be another species entirely whose genetic traces are found in modern humans too.

A quiet night in with Lorraine, sipping hot chocolate, and watching Chelsea squeak by into the Champions League semi final tonight, their reward is to face Barcelona, widely accepted as the world's best team.

Below this may be the first confirmed example of Neanderthal art. Although UFOlogists and others might suggest a double helix, the image is thought to be of two seals.