| Sumario: | A commentary on Jerome Dobson's “The Iodine Factor in Health and Evolution,” which appeared in Geographical Review,” vol. 88, 1998, pp. 1–28. The writer believes Dobson's explanation is untenable, but finds the apparent similarities he outlines between modern endemic cretins and classic Neanderthals in terms of bone thickness and robustness to be intriguing. She agrees that these characteristics reflect thyroid hormone synthesis, but argues that this is in a natural rather than a pathological manner. She describes the role of thyroid hormone—thyroxine— in heterochronic speciation events for all vertebra taxa, including humans and demonstrates its ability to explain characteristic Neanderthal morphology.
|
|---|