Did Modern Humans Interbreed with Neanderthals?

Question

what evidence is there for or against. Also, since Neanderthals only lived in Europe and Southwest Asia, would only people from those regions have Neanderthal ancestry?

Answer 1

Although no mitochondrial DNA or Y chromosomes have been found, there's the suggestion that out 'speech gene' FOXp2 had a Nenderthal origin.

There are a lot of anthropologists who support interbreeding, as do a lot of DNA studies. I've seen one population geneticist outright say that the out of Africa theory is impossible.

A lot of spam DNA studies supporting interbreeding.

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract...

X chromosome evidence for ancient human histories

Eugene E. Harris and Jody Hey*

Diverse African and non-African samples of the X-linked PDHA1 (pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 subunit) locus revealed a fixed DNA sequence difference between the two sample groups. The age of onset of population subdivision appears to be about 200 thousand years ago. This predates the earliest modern human fossils, suggesting the transformation to modern humans occurred in a subdivided population. The base of the PDHA1 gene tree is relatively ancient, with an estimated age of 1.86 million years, a late Pliocene time associated with early species of Homo. PDHA1 revealed very low variation among non-Africans, but in other respects the data are consistent with reports from other X-linked and autosomal haplotype data sets. Like these other genes, but in conflict with microsatellite and mitochondrial data, PDHA1 does not show evidence of human population expansion.

http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/conten...

Abstract

The human RRM2P4 pseudogene has a pattern of nucleotide polymorphism that is unlike any

locus published to date. A gene tree constructed from a 2.4 kb fragment of the RRM2P4 locus

sequenced in a sample of 41 worldwide humans clearly roots in East Asia and has a most recent common ancestor ~2 million years before the present. The presence of this basal lineage exclusively in Asia results in higher nucleotide diversity among non-Africans than Africans. A global survey of a single nucleotide polymorphism that is diagnostic for the basal, Asian lineage in 570 individuals shows that it occurs at frequencies up to 53% in south China, while only one of 177 surveyed Africans carries this archaic lineage. We suggest that this ancient lineage is a remnant of introgressive hybridization between expanding anatomically modern humans emerging from Africa and archaic populations in Eurasia.

http://accuca.conectia.es/archaic_genes_...

http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/abst...

Fossil evidence links human ancestry with populations that evolved modern gracile morphology in Africa 130,000 - 160,000 years ago. Yet fossils alone do not provide clear answers to the question of whether the ancestors of all modern Homo sapiens comprised a single African population or an amalgamation of distinct archaic populations. DNA sequence data have consistently supported a single origin model in which anatomically modern Africans expanded and completely replaced all other archaic hominin populations. Aided by a novel experimental design, we present the first genetic evidence that statistically rejects the null hypothesis that our species descends from a single, historically panmictic population. In a global sample of 42 X chromosomes, two African individuals carry a lineage of non-coding 17.5 kilobase sequence that has survived for over one million years without any clear traces of ongoing recombination with other lineages at this locus. These patterns of deep haplotype divergence and long-range linkage disequilibrium are best explained by a prolonged period of ancestral population subdivision followed by relatively recent interbreeding. This inference supports human evolution models that incorporate admixture between divergent African branches of the genus Homo.

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract...

*Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Departments of Human Genetics and Ecology and Evolution, and Committee on Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637

Edited by Henry C. Harpending, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, and approved October 5, 2006 (received for review August 10, 2006)

At the center of the debate on the emergence of modern humans and their spread throughout the globe is the question of whether archaic Homo lineages contributed to the modern human gene pool, and more importantly, whether such contributions impacted the evolutionary adaptation of our species. A major obstacle to answering this question is that low levels of admixture with archaic lineages are not expected to leave extensive traces in the modern human gene pool because of genetic drift. Loci that have undergone strong positive selection, however, offer a unique opportunity to identify low-level admixture with archaic lineages, provided that the introgressed archaic allele has risen to high frequency under positive selection. The gene microcephalin (MCPH1) regulates brain size during development and has experienced positive selection in the lineage leading to Homo sapiens. Within modern humans, a group of closely related haplotypes at this locus, known as haplogroup D, rose from a single copy 37,000 years ago and swept to exceptionally high frequency (70% worldwide today) because of positive selection. Here, we examine the origin of haplogroup D. By using the interhaplogroup divergence test, we show that haplogroup D likely originated from a lineage separated from modern humans 1.1 million years ago and introgressed into humans by 37,000 years ago. This finding supports the possibility of admixture between modern humans and archaic Homo populations (Neanderthals being one possibility). Furthermore, it buttresses the important notion that, through such adminture, our species has benefited evolutionarily by gaining new advantageous alleles. The interhaplogroup divergence test developed here may be broadly applicable to the detection of introgression at other loci in the human genome or in genomes of other species.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/article...

A consideration of the morphological aspects of the earliest modern humans in Europe (more than ≈33,000 B.P.) and the subsequent Gravettian human remains indicates that they possess an anatomical pattern congruent with the autapomorphic (derived) morphology of the earliest (Middle Paleolithic) African modern humans. However, they exhibit a variable suite of features that are either distinctive Neandertal traits and/or plesiomorphic (ancestral) aspects that had been lost among the African Middle Paleolithic modern humans. These features include aspects of neurocranial shape, basicranial external morphology, mandibular ramal and symphyseal form, dental morphology and size, and anteroposterior dental proportions, as well as aspects of the clavicles, scapulae, metacarpals, and appendicular proportions. The ubiquitous and variable presence of these morphological features in the European earlier modern human samples can only be parsimoniously explained as a product of modest levels of assimilation of Neandertals into early modern human populations as the latter dispersed across Europe. This interpretation is in agreement with current analyses of recent and past human molecular data.

Answer 2

One of the theories for the extinction of the Neanderthals was interaction with Cro-magnons.

However, recently Italian researchers sequenced mitochondrial DNA from Cro-Magnon bones dating from 28,000 years ago and found no trace of Neanderthal DNA, suggesting that the two early hominids did not interbreed to create modern humans.

Answer 3

although early homo sapiens did exist at the same time, as neanderthals, there is no evidence that they interbred and actually fighting between the two species may have been what wiped out the neanderthals

Answer 4

Yes.

Evidence: Dirk Nowitzki

Answer 5

No.  They certainly didn't mate.  They don't have anything to do do at this level.

Answer 6

One possible explanation for the hybrid skulls and the lack of DNA evidence is that they did mate but they produced sterile offspring just like horses and donkeys make mule. Since the offspring are sterile there are no descendents of a single neanderthal / homo sapien pair.

Answer 7

I would think that man being man would kill off the males and keep the females as playthings, 'Whether they could interbreed ?' well, we will have to wait for the DNA results

Answer 8

no different number of chromosomes.....tom

Answer 9

I think it is possible but nothing conclusive has been discovered by science. Infact most of the evidence points against it. For example, YDNA of hundreds of thousands of men has been tested from around the world and they all seem to descend from a single man that lived in Africa about 75,000 years ago. Simiarly, all women descend from a single female that lived about 150,000 years ago. Now is it possible that  human males had only male offsprings with Neandertal females, to explain the absence of  Neandertal mtdna and Y DNA in humans? It is possible,  I suppose. Even then, we would have to explain why Neandertal men didnt marry human females and why the human males and Neandertal females didnt have any male offspring too.

Answer 10

Whatever the correct theory (only or multiregional origin), it seems clear that the neandertales and the modern man coexisted in Europe AND the NEXT EAST by less during 20,000 years. But that ocurrio with the neandertales. Three possible answers have seted out. First it is that they were intermingled with the modern human populations and the neardentales typical were disappearing. Second it is quen were exterminated by the modern men and third it is that they were led the extinction in his competition with the modern man.

Answer 11

I think so.

No proof but we know that Neanderthals and humans lived at the same time and in the same places. For all we know, there could by a Neanderthal and human hybrid. I think people are trying to analyze people's DNA right now looking for that proof.

Answer 12

yes because i woke up once with something from the stone age but thats stella for you

Answer 13

There are five known Cro-Magnon/Neanderthal Hybrid skeletal remains, which would seem to indicate that we did!

The individual Cro-Magnon remains which showed no indication of Neanderthal DNA, only proves that those individual lineages did not cross breed...

And to answer your last question...Yes, only Europeans & SW Asians exhibit RH-- blood, as did Neanderthals...

Answer 14

The current DNA sequencing shows we are a different species from the Neanderthat. Based on that cross breeding would not be possible.

The supposed "hybrid" remains fall within the species variation. That is, a supposed EMH(early modern human)/ Neanderthal mix would still be in the range of it's species. I recall in grade school a picture of a Neanderthal head was a dead ringer for a student in the next grade.

The Autisim theory has Neanderthal genes, caused by interbreeding, to be causing today's autisim, ADHD and similar issues. However, it would be the Europeon population that would have the highest levels but they don't