Yet despite this closeness, Neanderthals' (Homo neanderthalensis) and Homo sapiens' lineages diverged ... shorter than post-World-War II Europeans, but identical or slightly taller than Europeans ...

This is not surprising. Homo sapiens began in Africa but Neanderthals were Eurasian. Any miscegenation would have happened after sapiens left its homeland to embark on its conquest of the world.

Tens of thousands of years ago, modern humans (Homo sapiens) migrating out of Africa interbred with Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) in the Middle East. As a consequence of this encounter ...

The work by the team involved sequencing the genes of two types of early human relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, and comparing them with the sequences from the human ancestor, Homo sapiens.

Researchers from the University of Aix-Marseille studied the genomes of several ancient individuals—Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens. The study reveals that Neanderthals possessed a ...

The Jebel Irhoud hominins apparently lived 350,000 years after Neanderthals and Homo sapiens last shared a common ancestor, long enough for the two lineages to develop some obvious differences.

Forensic studies show that, at some point, Neanderthals and our direct ancestors — Homo sapiens — crossed paths. Our two species were similar enough that they could produce successful offspring.

"For any case of inbreeding of a Neanderthal female with a Homo sapiens or Denisova male, there is a high risk of hemolytic disease [abnormal breakdown of red blood cell] of the newborn ...