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,
00:12and then modern humans.
00:13However, our species was a spectrum for a long while, with Neanderthals and humans existing
00:18at the same time.
00:19However, new research suggests that not only did they exist together, but they did so for
00:23a long time, and they intermingled a lot, if you know what I mean.
00:27The researchers say that rather than a quick dying off of Neanderthals, where larger populations
00:32suddenly disappeared, they say that their numbers were much smaller than previously
00:35believed.
00:36With 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.
00:45We have long known that the two groups intermingled, as we can still find traces of Neanderthal
00:49DNA in us today.
00:51This research highlights just how much the two groups mixed, with the DNA pool eventually
00:55flowing towards humans.
00:57However, their research found human DNA in Neanderthal remains as well, going back as
01:02far as 250,000 years ago.