Neanderthals, which disappeared from the archaeological record roughly 40,000 years ago, have long been considered our closest evolutionary relatives.

Are Neanderthals and Homo sapiens the same species?

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2024-12-12 14:30:03

Neanderthals, which disappeared from the archaeological record roughly 40,000 years ago, have long been considered our closest evolutionary relatives. But almost since the first discovery of Neanderthal remains in the 1800s, scientists have been arguing over whether Neanderthals constitute their own species or if they're simply a subset of our own species, Homo sapiens, that has since gone extinct.

So what does the science say? In particular, what does the genetic evidence, which didn't exist back when many early hominins were first discovered, show?

The question of whether Neanderthals can be considered the same species as modern humans is complicated by our understanding of what a species is, Jeff Schwartz, a physical anthropologist and professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, told Live Science. The most common definition, called the biological species concept, describes a species as a group of individuals that can interbreed in nature and produce viable offspring. But even today, several odd hybrids poke holes in this definition.

"Horses and donkeys can breed, but the mules they give birth to are sterile, and so the two are considered to be different species," Schwartz said. But other combinations do produce viable offspring. These include the liger (a cross between a lion and a tiger) and the beefalo (a cross between a cow and an American bison).