Skeleton reveals early humans had sex with Neanderthals - BBC News

In 1998, the skeleton of a 29,000-year-old child was unearthed in Portugal’s Lapedo valley.

The child had both early modern human and Neanderthal features, including the chin and lower arms of a modern human but the jaw and build of a Neanderthal.

Researchers believed that the child's anatomy was the result of mixed Neandertal-early modern human ancestry.

Now new archaeological and DNA techniques may hold the answer.

#Portugal #Science #BBCNews

[_aje]

I'm not sure anyone will be surprised by this. We wouldn't have Neanderthal DNA in us otherwise.

[tc-]

“You and me baby we ain’t nothin but mammals, so let’s do it like they do it on discovery channel”

[douglaswatters]

After I got the internet, nothing about human sexuality can surprise me anymore.

[TaLeng]

Archeologists looking at the skeletons: "Yeah, they were definitely boning."

[EyeofZai]

hearing about the child’s burial makes me somewhat happy. they were loved, and their people buried them with that love. humanity has kept that trait, even though we might not be the same species as the people responsible for that burial. is that overly sentimental? maybe, but it’s a nice thought.

[jimmyconnolly]

I just want to state that I have never (knowingly) had sex with Neanderthal.

[bruceluiz]

Considering how labor and resource intensive shroud-making was back then, they gave this child a costly and thoughtful burial. This demonstrates how much they cared for it, and how much grief they must have passed through.

[carolashdown]

I wonder how much we underestimate their ability to communicate and their social hierarchies, interpersonal relationships and culture. To have put so much thought into the burial does display love and care. Possibly we are giving the whole population far less credit for organisation and intelligence than their due. Just because it was a long time ago?

[henrygvidonas]

I think it's wonderful that even though this child only lived to be four years old, he taught us so much about ourselves thousands of years after his death.

And the way he was buried shows that his family loved him and cared about him.

[richardmtl]

Skeleton reveals early humans had sex with Neanderthals; They still do.

[dreamchasergarage]

Never understood why interbreeding, especially repeatedly over long periods, was only ever considered reluctantly. To deny that is to deny human nature. Not a dignified idea admittedly but let's face it - humans, especially males, will engage in sex pretty much whenever the opportunity presents itself. We aren't exactly famously selective.

[er.analysisfacts]

Oh thats why my friend looks like as a neantherthals

[janerkenbrack]

In pondering the subject, I often wondered if early modern human and neanderthal saw no more difference in each other than we today see different skin colors or facial features.

[bbbb]

Ah, the good old days. I'm not judging

[georgenorris]

It occurred to me watching this video that our ancestors, living in small tribes throughout Europe, would probably not have identified Neanderthal neighbours as being any other than fellow beings. Doesn't it raise the question though that Neanderthal partners must have been able to communicate? in other words talk?

[phillipjameson]

If two individuals can reproduce and have a valid offspring, then they aren't different species.

[BigJFindAWay]

I think that in prehistoric times, Cro Magnons, Neanderthals and Denisovans didn’t even recognize each other as separate species or as non humans or as subhumans but rather as other humans. So you’re a group of Cro Magnons wandering through unknown wilderness and you come across a group of Neanderthals you didn’t say to one another, “Hey look there’s a group of Neanderthals” or whatever name you used for them but rather was like, “Hey there’s people here! Let’s introduce ourselves to them and maybe they can let us join their community.”

[goddessFraya]

Some of the things I have slept with when drunk over the years could be described as neanderthals 🤢

[johnbowen]

‘Look, I’d accidentally eaten some partially fermented fruit around tea time, fire hadn’t been invented yet so it was pretty dang dark in the cave that evening…’

[harrycallisto]

What I don’t get is that if Neanderthals went extinct 40000+years ago, how did this kid have a Neanderthal parent 29000 years ago?