Talk:Island of east Africa

Homo sapiens idalto
Not question the evolutionary scheme presented, it is clear from the wikipedia artice that all three human tribes mentioned here are sub-species (read: varieties, as with other animals) of Homo sapiens, using the trinomial names. It is incorrect to speak of the subspecies as if they are separate species. "Anatomically modern" human is denominated as "Homo sapiens sapiens." It is an admission by modern science that both neanderthalensis and idaltu are not separate species, but rather "subspecies" of the same creature ("man"). As with Neanderthal, the Idaltu is a variety -- a man who was bigger and stronger, apparently, than modern man. However, his projected size is not outside of observed stature among men today. In fact, on the African continent is still home to the tallest people in the world - the Watusi tribe in the Sudan (very close to where the idaltu fossils were found). These people are just plain old Homo sapiens sapiens, displaying the extreme of the traits found in the human genome. Neanderthalensis may have been tribes of humans suffering from nutritional deficiencies. Whatever the case, they are now classified as a subspecies, not a separate species.

All that being said, your time line goes so far back that the whole history of the world would change so drastically that you have a "parallel history" rather than an "alternate history." My "Sideways Earth" might be the same, though I am going to try to keep all human history to move in the same way (no surprise species or anything). I have considered beginning a wiki for parallel worlds that has fewer restrictions that alternate histories. However, I enjoy the challenge of seeing how "little changes" can change the course of history. "Big things" leave the imagination free to change worlds, not just events. Creativity can run "wild," leaving little or no connections with the world we know. --SouthWriter 02:21, February 21, 2011 (UTC)