Modern humans bred with 5 archaic human species?

[JohnM]

Rather odd speculation here considering we are on "the information super-highway." Anyway, Neanderthal DNA has been sequenced. The key point is that there is evidence that Neanderthals did interbreed with "modern" humans. Then the Denisovians are added. Since all current existing races can interbreed, it appears that both Neanderthals and Denisovians were as human as you or I. The painted depictions of Neanderthals have changed over time. Putting muscle and skin over old skulls does not reveal if Neanderthals were white or some shade of brown. The artist just makes best guesses.

Neanderthals buried their dead. They produced cave paintings.

70,000-year-old remains suggest Neanderthals buried their dead

A Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in a cave in Iraq shows signs of having been deliberately buried – more evidence our cousin species behaved a little like we do

www.newscientist.com

World's Oldest Cave Art Found—And Neanderthals Made It

The findings suggest that Neanderthals and modern humans had the same cognitive abilities.

www.nationalgeographic.com

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Besides the Neanderthals and Denisovians there apparently are around 21 human species, at least that's how many we have found so far. Around 10 of them intersected, if not interacted with modern humans.

 

[JohnM]

I find that to be highly speculative. Highly speculative.

 

[JimC]

"Are the genetic differences between these ancestral groups any greater than between our more modern groups?"

Yes, but not enough to prevent introgression in both directions. For example, about 50-60% of Neanderthal DNA survives today, but by the time of the late Neanderthals, the originally Neanderthal DNA on their Y chromosome had been replaced by sapiens DNA. They didn't exactly go extinct - we absorbed them. Same for the Denisovans. Denisovan, Neanderthal, and Australasian DNA even made it to South America by way of the Bering Strait landbridge.

As an aside, Neanderthal brains on average were larger than ours by about the volume of an orange. But since most of that extra volume seems to have been involved in processing data from their larger eyes, I doubt that the extra volume had much impact on relative intelligence. They obviously weren't stupid.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

My two most recent Substack posts may interest readers intrigued by the issues raised in this thread.

 

[Lafayette]

Denisovians: an archaic people all named Dennis.

Unless these people were fearless, generous, kind, brilliant, and handsome I don't claim to be related.