When you imagine the evolution of homosapien it’s easy to imagine our great ape ancestors turning into upright versions and eventually becoming neanderthals and then modern humans. However, our species was a spectrum for a long while with Neanderthals and humans existing at the same time and it turns out they got cozy.
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00:00When you imagine the evolution of Homo sapien, it's easy to imagine something like this,
00:07where our great ape ancestors turned into upright versions, eventually becoming Neanderthals and
00:12then modern humans. However, our species was a spectrum for a long while, when Neanderthals
00:17and humans existing at the same time. However, new research suggests that not only did they
00:21exist together, but they did so for a long time, and they intermingled a lot, if you know what I
00:26mean. The researchers say that rather than a quick dying off of Neanderthals, where larger
00:31populations suddenly disappeared, they say that their numbers were much smaller than previously
00:35believed, with the researchers saying their numbers were likely 20% lower than previously thought,
00:40meaning Neanderthals were more likely interacting sexually with humans and mixing DNA. We have long
00:45known that the two groups intermingled, as we can still find traces of Neanderthal DNA in us today.
00:51This research highlights just how much the two groups mixed, with the DNA pool eventually flowing
00:56towards humans. However, their research found human DNA in Neanderthal remains as well,
01:01going back as far as 250,000 years ago.