More questions about interbreeding emerge

Another question that was put forward was: was it proximity that inspired the Neanderthals and the Denisovans to interbreed? Or was there something else at play? Well, the answer to this inquiry was given to us by Katerina Harvati-Papatheodorou of the University of Tübingen. She explained that such cross-species interactions might have formed a degree of survival. In an interview with New Scientist, the German academic stated that human groups back then were very small, and as a result, they were vulnerable to drastic mortality.

As more information pops up, scientists desire to solve some of these mysteries that have long puzzled human evolution. Did the Neanderthals and Denisovans quickly die out when Homo sapiens started to thrive or were they just assimilated into the dominant species? Princeton University’s Joshua Akey shared in an interview with New Scientist that Denny’s DNA points further to the second of those assumptions, albeit we are a very long way from a definite answer.