Neanderthals + Cro-Magnon=Children?

Great Debates
1

Neanderthals have been mentioned in several threads before - here’s a few:
Neanderthals & Fire
Neanderthals in Time
Teeth
And More
But I don’t think any of those really got off the ground for such an interesting topic.

The August 1999 Discover magazine had an article, “Learning to Love Neanderthals” saying that the Neanderthal’s DNA was different enough that there seemed to be no trace of it in modern DNA. However, central to the article was a set of bones of a child from about 25,000 years ago with both Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon features.

If Cro-Magnon is us, and Neanderthal is not, how could their combined DNA produce a living being?

The article said the bones were found in the Iberian Peninsula an area where the Neanderthals were slow dying off and Cro-Magnon were slow to take over. The implication to me was that the Neanderthals hung on in the area later than they did in other places in the world.

And do we need to consult an OB-GYN here to discover if the Cro-Magnon female could deliver the larger head of the Neanderthal baby?

Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.

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Jois wrote:

Dunno about that, but I do know that a horse and a donkey can breed and produce offspring. That offspring is known as a mule, and is sterile. Maybe that’s the way it worked with Cro-Magnon and Neanderthals. Maybe they were close enough genetically to reproduce, but far enough apart that their offspring wound up sterile. Any geneticists out there?

“Every time you think, you weaken the nation!” --M. Howard (addressing his brother, C. Howard).

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[Moderator Hat ON]

Sounds like a General Question to me. Off it goes.

[Moderator Hat OFF]