The triggering event for this weekly is the drawing on the right. But before I go into details, more general approach is due.

The task of understanding human nature and, in the first place, the huma- nity’s existence has changed dramatically in just the past five years. Advances in genetics, innovations in radiocarbon dating and the field of paleoanthropology in general as well as an important revival of basic ideas of evolution in scientific community have greatly improved the guesswork on what and why in the history of our species. Although the guesswork started some 180 years ago and we have so far evidenced that 27 separate human species have evolved on planet Earth, we just started to uncover the circumstances by which we are the lone survivor, the "last ape standing". We don’t know, and we probably will never know exactly, how many other human species have evolved over the past seven million years. Anyway, only one of them, us, survived. Why? And then, couldn’t more than one version have survived and coexisted with us? At least for a while, maybe contributing to our inheritance? An entirely new species of human, Deni- sovans, evidenced in a Siberian cave just three years ago, may share a common ancestor with us and Neanderthals. The evidence even revealed we mated with them. The story of our relationship with Neanderthals, including the guilt feelings of their extinction, undergoes revisions on the yearly base if not monthly, just browse National Geographic or Scientific American for the last couple of years. We have learned that billions of humans (including, very possibly, you and me) have Neanderthal blood running in their veins.