The Ongoing Impact of the Wenner-Gren Symposium on the Interpretation of Fossils, “Genes,” and Human Evolution

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>With Neanderthals and other non-human-like specimens lumped into Homo sapiens, one had to justify why they belonged to the same species: sapiens. Eventually, Neanderthals were returned to Homo neanderthalensis. Other non-sapiens-like specimens were allocated to Homo heidelbergensis. The resultant sequence of human evolution within Homo was erectus→heidelbergensis→neanderthalensis→sapiens. Since species erectus had become the taxonomic wastebasket for specimens that were chronologically younger than heidelbergensis and older than habilis, this species came to house myriad morphologically different specimens from Asia and Africa. Although this made erectus undefinable, it allowed choosing any African or Asian specimen to represent erectus in one’s digital analysis. The acceptance of Neanderthals as the human ancestor made it possible for molecular anthropologists to infer that “genes” identified in a reconstructed Neanderthal genome were present in humans because they interbred.</jats:p>