Prehistoric teeth hint at Stone Age sex with Neanderthals

[CalMeacham]

It’s long been claimed that there was mixing between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, but rarely does it get such a wonderful headline as that.

Early modern humans and Neanderthals lived in Europe and parts of Asia at the same time – overlapping for several thousands of years before our archaic relatives disappeared around 40,000 years ago.

During this time, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals encountered each other and sometimes had sex and gave birth to children. The evidence is buried within our genes, DNA analysis has shown, with most Europeans having around 2% Neanderthal DNA in their genomes from this ancient interbreeding.

However, there has been relatively little direct physical evidence of these encounters and fossilized bones. Skeletons that have been found haven’t offered definitive proof.

Now, a new analysis of 11 teeth found in a cave in Jersey, an island in the English Channel, has suggested that some of them could have belonged to individuals that had mixed Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens ancestry.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01/europe/neanderthal-interbreeding-teeth-scn/index.html

[solost]

@CalMeacham

It’s long been claimed that there was mixing between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals

I thought it had been well established by DNA testing that early humans were mixin’ it up with Neanderthals:

Modern Humans May Have More Neanderthal DNA Than Previously Thought

[Pleonast]

@solost

I thought it had been well established by DNA testing that early humans were mixin’ it up with Neanderthals:

Yes, but there was little fossil evidence. Having multiple lines of evidence to support a theory is good. It gives resistance to systematic errors.

[Paul_was_in_Saudi]

How could this be an issue? Anyone who ever was a teenager can understand that Sapiens/Neanderthal sex is a given.

(My DNA test shows near-record amounts of DNA ancestry. I admit it explains a lot.)

[CalMeacham]

@solost

I thought it had been well established by DNA testing that early humans were mixin’ it up with Neanderthals:

It is, but the speculation long predated DNA testing.

[Dewey_Finn]

Based on the title, I expected to read that they found small hairs between the prehistoric teeth.

[Happy_Lendervedder]

This made me laugh more than it probably should’ve.

[LSLGuy]

@Paul_was_in_Saudi

(My DNA test shows near-record amounts of DNA ancestry. I admit it explains a lot.)

It certainly does.

[dropzone]

We’re going with Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, not Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis? I liked the latter for finding a home for Alley Oop closer to the rest of us.

[SleepyJoe]

Hasn’t it been pretty much a theory that they killed the Neanderthal men and mated with the women?

[Paul_was_in_Saudi]

I suppose the answer is unknowable. It is just as possible that interspecies couplings were based on love.

[Colibri]

@dropzone

We’re going with Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, not Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis?

Although the two groups certainly interbred, hybridization evidently took place only in limited areas and during limited time intervals. According to modern standards for species, that would make them separate species. To be the same species hybridization would have had to have been much more widespread (as it is between populations of Homo sapiens when they come into contact).

[Pleonast]

@SleepyJoe

Hasn’t it been pretty much a theory that they killed the Neanderthal men and mated with the women?

No, no. They went extinct because like other large mammals, we ate them all.

@Colibri

To be the same species hybridization would have had to have been much more widespread (as it is between populations of Homo sapiens when they come into contact).

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how biologists describe people with loose morals.

[dropzone]

Colibri:
According to modern standards for species,

Are you saying I’m old? Fair enough. I never used any of it professionally and went through the decades lamenting that everything I knew in several career paths was wrong.