The most accepted theory about how the Neanderthals, the human species that lived about 250,000 to 40,000 years ago, went extinct, was that this species and the Homo Sapiens species, to which we belong, fought each other. But a new study has been published that reveals a surprising result.
According to new research published in the journal Paleo Anthropology, Neanderthals not only fought with Homo Sapiens, they also had sexual intercourse. So much so that the possibility of breeding with Homo Sapiens was added to the reasons for the extinction of the species.
So how did Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens relate?
The first encounters of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens date back about 600,000 years, according to discoveries made to date. But the evidence that the two species are sexually related is currently very limited.
To date, scientists have succeeded in sequencing only 32 Neanderthal genomes. The data showed that only 2% of people living outside of Africa today carry the Neanderthal genome. Therefore, the theory presented by scientists in their new research was an assumption based on only this little data.
What was the evidence that laid the foundation for the new theory?
The fact that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens had sexual intercourse with each other was also understood when we first examined their genomes. But the Neanderthal genes found in our genes today do not belong to the period they had when Homo Sapiens left Africa. Instead, it dates back to 60,000 years ago, when much larger migrations took place.
On the other hand, recent studies of fossils from Apidima Cave (Greece) indicated an earlier spread of our species, reaching Europe more than 200,000 years ago. In fact, this was new evidence to support the theory of gene exchange, which was thought to have taken place between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals at that time.
So, how might the Neanderthals having sexual intercourse with Homo Sapiens have prepared their end?
The answer to this question may actually be quite simple: Neanderthals may have interacted with Homo Sapiens instead of interbreeding, and as a result, the number of their own unique species may have decreased. When we combine the wars between the two species with this theory, it may be possible to reduce the number of ‘purebred’ Neanderthals to zero. But of course, this is only a theory with today’s data.
More Neanderthal genomes need to be sequenced to fully understand the relationship between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens.
Human species were also interbreeding hundreds of thousands of years ago:
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