NEANDERTHAL AND HOMO SAPIENS HYBRIDIZATION
DID THE NEANDERTHALS REALLY GET EXTINCT?
After the Neanderthal genome was sequenced, it was found that we “humans” or "Homo sapiens sapiens" have Neanderthal genes in our chromosomes. Before that, many scientists used to admire the way we, the “Cro-Magnon” man or Homo sapiens sapiens, had populated the world out of Africa. Still, many of them keep talking about the superiority of Homo sapiens sapiens compared with other hominins, included Neanderthal.
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Under my point of view, the human colonization of the entire world out of Africa could only take place after the interbreeding of Homo sapiens sapiens with Neanderthals, and also with the recently discovered Denisova Man. In addition to these two, another species has been found in modern human genomes but not in fossil register yet. That interbreeding could have taken place between about 200.000 and 45.000 years ago.
Before that time many waves of hominine had entered Asia and Europe, but no one was as successful as the one that took place around 40.000 to 80.000 years ago. It has been estimated that last Neanderthals lived around 30.000 years ago. It means that Neanderthals had more or less 10.000 years to interbreed with those Africans.
As off year 2.017 of our era, some scientist certify that nowadays everybody, except aborigines from south of Sahara Desert, have not less than 2% of Neanderthal genes in their constitution. It doesn’t seem much but it is as if the father of the great-great-grandfather of your great-great-grandfather had been a Neanderthal about 300 years ago. That is in case our subject had 2% of Neanderthal blood but it happens to be that that percentage fluctuates between 2% a 5% of archaic blood, including Denisovan blood. Although it is true so far that amount could even be higher because the Neanderthal Genome was codified from a very little number of fossils and it is expected to increase as new Neanderthal genomes get sequenced.
Today’s numbers also indicate that the so far studied Neanderthal genomes could be recovered from actual human populations in 40%. That number could also increase with new studies.
Those researches make me conclude that Neanderthals are not completely extinct and that they live in many of today people.
ADDITIONAL NEANDERTHAL LEGACY
When two cultures meet for the first time there is lots of information to share. There is a knowledge exchange that act in a synergetic way, meaning that to whole is much more than the single additional effect of the parts. So the result of the new encountered cultures was almost explosive in the advantages that it brought. That is especially true for but not limited to technology.
The genetic exchange also brought many advantages to both lineages, not only because each gene reserve had a lot to give, but because of the cooperation among genes. Natural selection and gene “behavior” would do the rest but, before that there is a very special interbreeding result in genetic that is called “hybrid vigor” that genetists try to obtain mainly in agriculture and livestock breeding. When you interbreed two different living individuals with different genetics types, they can be among others varieties, lines, subspecies, or species; you obtain at least in the first generation in most cases, a superior individual that as in cultural aspects, is much more superior than, outperforms, the simple additive effects of the parents. It would be as mare and donkey inbreeding with the only difference that Neanderthal and African humans, unlike mules, would produce fertile offspring.
Nobody is going to get out of my mind that first generation hybrids of African and Neanderthal, were very superior beings. May be we are talking about people of 7,5 or more feet tall. Very strong and resistant, much more intelligent than any of the parents and with an additional contribution, that of the new technology obtained from both cultures.
After the meeting of Neanderthals and Africans humanity developed the best stone industry not only in hand made instrument but in the use of stone as building material. Additionally it was after that moment that humans had enormous advantages to face climate change, understand animal behavior, to create, to implement domestication of plants and animals and so on.
Scientist in biological and social sciences must by no means discard, ignore, set aside or underestimate, the huge explosive effect of the meeting of Neanderthal and Africans and consequent superiority of human group that resulted from that particular exchange. They must admit once and for all that the result of that interbreeding and cultural exchange is what makes them so proud about us “Homo sapiens sapiens” or may be "H. sapiens x H. neanderthalensis"?
