nulldev00@aol.com (Edward Green) wrote in 
<2a0cceff.0306110621.2e4414a5@posting.google.com>:

> the fossil record _is_ littered with extinguished
> humanoids.  So big deal ... if our little band had joined them, there
> would have been some other essentially human looking primate ready to
> try again: essentially, only broadening "human" a little ways down the
> branched genetic tree, human domination of the planet was almost
> inevitable after all.

They could have looked very different from the present 
human. The single factor that started the avalanche in the 
growth of our abilities past those of other animals was 
speech. In any other animal, in the absence of humans, as 
soon as speech would start the rest would've been bound to 
follow leading to those animals becoming human. So physical 
features of a human could have been very different from ours 
if something else had started to speak earlier than we did. 

-- 

     goft nanamo mibaram mifrusham, gof chetor? goft
     gheymati rush mizAram ke nakharn!