We now know that some encounters were very intimate - some of us have inherited around 2% Neanderthal DNA. Neanderthals lived alongside early modern humans for at least part of their existence. Some genetic calibrations place their divergence at about 650,000 years ago.īoth dating issues and fossil anatomy mean that scientists are currently uncertain whether the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans was Homo heidelbergensis, Homo antecessor or another species. Human domination of our earth is now so complete that it is easy to forget how recently our role in the history of our planet began: the earliest apes evolved. Scientific evidence suggests our two species shared a common ancestor.Ĭurrent evidence from both fossils and DNA suggests that Neanderthal and modern human lineages separated at least 500,000 years ago. Together with an Asian people known as Denisovans, Neanderthals are our closest ancient human relatives. Read Chris Stringer's argument for why Neanderthals should be considered a separate species from Homo sapiens > Neanderthals were humans like us, but they were a distinct species called Homo neanderthalensis.
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