Discovery suggests that distinct ancient human species may have mingled and interbred happily
A small piece of bone found in a cave in Siberia has been identified as the remnant of a child whose mother was a Neanderthal and father was a Denisovan, a mysterious human ancestor that lived in the region.
Researchers made the discovery when they examined DNA extracted from the bone and found that it contained chromosomes from a Neanderthal female and a Denisovan male. It is the first time that the offspring of such a coupling has been identified.
I’ve heard that the Neanderthals weren’t killed off by a more modern species of human. They were overbred. Modern humans still have a number of Neanderthal genes in them, coming from the intermarriage of modern humans and Neanderthals. I’ve heard that there were a number of different species of modern human related humanoids that disappeared for one reason or another, most likely by being overbred by more advanced species. To me, one of the defining characteristics of human beings of any line of species is the extensive use of language.
23andMe also gives Neanderthal information but doesn’t give a percentage. It instead states the number of variants. I supposedly have more variants than 80% of the population. I think this would suggest more than the 2% reckoned by the Genographic project. This kind of thing is in its infancy.
Apparently I have a Neanderthal variant from my father’s side which is supposed to result in very ,very slightly reduced height(talking something like 0.1 of an inch)
