This bone fragment harbors the most direct evidence yet of ancient interspecies mating. [Thomas Higham, University Of Oxford]
This bone fragment harbors the most direct evidence yet of ancient interspecies mating. [Thomas Higham, University Of Oxford]
If they can interbreed, then they are not separate species.
Separate species have different genetic codes, so it is impossible for them to breed.
Unless you are using the much less stringent idea of inability to interbreed due to chronological or physical barriers, i.e. time and space. (s)
>>An analysis of the woman’s genome, reported in this week’s issue of Nature, indicates her mother was Neanderthal and her father was Denisovan, the mysterious group of ancient humans discovered in the same Siberian cave in 2011. It is the most direct evidence yet that various ancient humans mated with each other and had offspring.
“science” magazine assumes her father was Denisovan. Maybe the breeding partner was but maybe her mother’s lifepartner was a transwoman. < /s >
By definition, if they had fertile offspring, they were one species. In some cases, this indicates that populations that were once thought of separate species are one (Polar Bears and Grizzly bears, for instance.)
In this case, Neanderthals were already regarded as Homo Sapiens, as many humans have significant amount of Neanderthal in them (no joke) meaning that offspring of H Sapiens Sapiens and H Sapiens Neanderthalis were fertile.
I’m not sure what the news is here: “A 2013 comparison with the genome of another Neanderthal from the Denisova cave revealed local interbreeding with local Neanderthal DNA representing 17% of the Denisovan genome, and evidence of interbreeding with an as yet unidentified ancient human lineage.” [Wikipedia citing Pennisis (2003) in Science]
“The woman may have been just a teenager ...”
Did they just assume her gender? Wow, just wow. I can’t even. It’s 2018!
If they successfully mated with fertile offspring, they were the same species
That's a bit of a strange comment!
If they interbred and had fertile offspring, then they can’t be different species.
Now, how do they know it was a female?? Maybe she identified as a boy. Oh wait she had XX so it will be a female...
Experts can tell, from a fragment of a bone, the SEX of the person. There are two: Male and Female. There is no stupid foolishness like a spectrum of 50,000 genders or other crap.
So there really was a middle earth.
“Now we have the love child of two different hominin groups, found where members of both groups have been found. It’s quite a lot of things happening in one cave through time.”
There was probably as much love in this mating as when Berlin fell to the Russians.
“too young to have left much of a mark on her world”
Maybe she was the one that wiped out the neanderthals and denisovians.
See what happens when you eat organic? You go extinct.
Neanderthals went on an extremely successful Love Tour, though according to genetic evidence, they had no interest in African women.
![This bone fragment harbors the most direct evidence yet of ancient interspecies mating. [Thomas Higham, University Of Oxford]](http://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/inline__450w__no_aspect/public/ca_0824NID_Bone_Fragment_online2.jpg?itok=pIc0N1Hh)