Comment on Forbidden Fruit
azi@mander.xyz 7 hours agoI think the idea of there being health issues in certain types of mixed families is super interesting because that almost certainly would have been noticed and lead to certain cultural practices or taboos within both species’ societies.
The_v@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
If I had to guess the successful crosses were potentially much healthier than either parent line. Heterosis (hybrid vigor) would likely be pretty extreme in genetic lines that has been isolated by 300,000+ years of time. Of course the degree of fertility was likely lowered due to genetic distance. Once the initial cross was made however, back-crossing to either species by the hybrid would likely be much easier.
Many of those ancient stories about individuals with super strength and size etc could have likely been based upon these crosses.
The evidence is showing neadertals never truly died out. Their smaller population bred back into the modern humans who came later.