I don't understand how there were different species of humans. So modern humans are part Neanderthal. So that means we bred with and had viable offspring with them. So that means we weren't different species. So if you have 2 very different types of humans but their able to have kids, isn't that just a race? Were Neanderthals and homosapiens any more different than Africans and east Asians or Nordic people?
I'm very confused by the terms. How can you say Neanderthals are extinct? How could they be a different species?
>I don't understand how there were different species of humans.
Homo Erectus diverged into Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis. It happens all the time.
Brandon Ward
Are they different species or not
Christopher Moore
And if they are then what the fuck is a species and why aren't races considered different species?
Brayden Evans
Yeah. Where does it say that Neanderthals bred with Sapiens? I thought the Neanderthals died out.
Dylan Morris
There is debate over how to classify species. They were close enough with humans that they could produce offspring, so they were more or less human.
Carter Foster
Different species cant produce fertile offspring, different races can.
John Adams
No there are lots of examples that could, including potamotrygon rays, dart frogs, and blood parrot cichlids. In fact there are some natural fertile hybrids that are the product of two different species, such as clymene dolphins
Evan Flores
In general we use different terms for humans than we do over other animals. For example "race" isn't really a biological term. it's a social term we use for humans, but scientists don't really bother with it. Similarly Neanderthals were considered a different species because they were fairly different from Homo Sapiens, but for any other animal they'd just be considered the same species (or a sub-species)
Cameron Ward
The idea that species are defined by the ability to breed and have fertile offspring has become obsolete as we've discovered more about hybrids. Though some hybrids are sterile, most are fertile to some degree.
There is currently no well accepted precise definition of what constitutes a species, though it is generally considered that races of modern humans have not been isolated for long enough to constitute separate species.
Early human species were thought to be isolated for hundreds of thousands of years, though there's a lot we don't know about them.
Studies based on mitochondrial DNA concluded that modern humans weren't descended from Neanderthals. However, later studies looking at nuclear DNA found that most modern humans had definite Neanderthal ancestry. Africans were far less likely to.
Kevin Jenkins
Defining a species is a guideline, not a law. We can bracket two organsims into two different species based on our observations that they can't breed, but nature might have different ideas and return them to a state where they can breed without us realising (more a problem with things like arthropods with have millions of individuals that are hard to measure).
Neanderthals tick most of the boxes to be considered a different species, and it's originally assumed they didn't breed with humans to produce viable offspring. If DNA evidence has proved they did breed with humans, that creates an argument that we and them should be two different subspecies, rather than seperate species. That would be argued out in the field and decided upon. For now, they're still considered a different species, perhaps because there's not strong enough evidence they interbred.
Human races aren't classified as seperate subspecies because that would cause political and racial issues.
Gavin Howard
Taxonomy is a social construct. All living things are essentially the same.
Matthew Perry
Anything (((they))) teach you about ancient man is made-up bullshit anyway, so who cares. tl;dr: Annunaki aliens
Since we both came from a common ancestor our genetics weren't that far apart. Also I wouldn't be surprised if human/Neanderthal pairjngs had less likely hood of a healthy child at the start. Finally we're not just human and Neanderthal but also Denisovian and other African hominins.
Jeremiah Green
You're thinking of very different species like a horse and donkey. We're talking about very close genetic cousins.
Dogs and wolves are the same species. Canus lupis. Wolf is just one breed of dog.
Joshua Powell
What I'm getting at here is by what criteria are Europeans and Africans the same species but homosapien and Neanderthal different? Science seems a lot like political bullshit sometimes.
John Powell
>modern humans are part Neanderthal White people are part Neanderthal.
Christian Roberts
Such a stupid fucking thing to say lmao. Neanderthals looked incredibly different from homosapiens. If you really look at humans, we all look remarkably alike. We wouldn't consider these big headed weirdos to be one of us. If anything, the concept of race would be different. We wouldn't consider Africans, Europeans and Asians to be different races.
Liam Anderson
Everyone but Africans
Mason Rogers
Common ancestor diverged into multiple species, easy peasy you retard.
Jonathan Gray
Dude... Really they look different? That's your argument?
Abos literally have a thicker skull than everyone else meaning a high genetic distance, so they cannot be human.
Andrew Price
The evidence they interbred s overwhelming.
Jordan Gomez
Woles are not just one breed of dog. Dogs all evolved from one species of wolf (the grey wolf). Other species of wolf exist. Dogs can digest starch; wolves can't.
Jace Jackson
>don't understand how there were different species you can just stop right here you clearly lack the fundamental understanding of evolution required to conceptualize the answer to this question.
