Evolutionary Sex | Moderns and Neanderthals

Modern man had sex with Neanderthals, crossing the species barrier.

Leading geneticist Professor Svante Paabo, director of the renowned Max Planck Institution for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, stated so at a recent conference in the Cold springs Laboratory in New York.

Researchers don’t know if the couplings produced offspring.

Some fossils show evidence of both modern human and Neanderthal features, suggesting interbreeding. Yet gene-based DNA scans have shown major differences between Neanderthal genes and those of modern man.

Last week Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum, presented a conference at the Royal Society in London with an idea that could accommodate both sets of evidence.

“It’s possible that Neanderthals and humans were genetically incompatible, so they could have interbred but their children would have been less fertile,” said Stringer.

When lions breed with tigers or horses breed with zebras, this is the result. via London Times

More reading: Human and Neanderthals Interbred Cosmos Magazine