in thread "Ancient homonid populations ?": Consciousness has nothing to do with this story. It's a complete red herring. The issue is intelligence and other cognitive traits. Dogs and cats are conscious, but that's irrelevant to emergence of modern humans from earlier hominids. 2mo ago (collapse hidden) log in to judge received 5.0 5.0 Consciousness has no (view hidden) log in to judge received 5.0 5.0 Dog breeding provides an existence proof that morphology can change greatly over short periods of time. We have St. Bernards and Shipperkes (a tiny Belgian breed resembling a Chihuaha) whose common ancestor is only a few centuries back. QED. 2mo ago (collapse hidden) log in to judge received 6.0 6.0 Dog breeding provide (view hidden) log in to judge received 6.0 6.0 You guys have seen this paper? It claims modern human resulted from a hybridization with archaic hominids vastly older than Neanderthals or Denisovans.... 2mo ago (collapse hidden) log in to judge received 6.9 6.9 You guys have seen t (view hidden) log in to judge received 6.9 6.9