How could they canoodle without actually encountering one another? Long distance canoodling? Internet Canoodling?
Ugly as those Neanderthal guys were it would take more than just canoodling, maybe some cave drawings and dino beer, before he proposed a little gene mixing with those uppity sapien girls.
I don’t know. Men in modernish times have been known to mate with walruses, goats, chicken, horses, and each other.
How ugly can the girls be compared to that? Excepting Helen Thomas, of course.