Verified answer

Two competing hypothesis exist on this. The predominate hypothesis is "replacement," but a growing number think some interbreeding occured & that is called the "regional" hypothesis. The replacement hypothesis suspects Homo sapien came out of Africa some 60-40,000 yrs ago & replaced all other ancient lines of Homo in Europe & Asia. The regional hypothesis suggests some interbreeding of sapien & neandertal happened in Europe, and some interbreeding of Homo erectus & sapien happened in Asia.

Both neandertal & sapien are considered to have evolved from Homo erectus. & while limited evidence for interbreeding exists, no evidence exists that says they could not interbreed. The sequencing of the entire neandertal genome is targeted for later this year or early next year. This should put to rest the debate over wheather MCPH1, a gene affecting brain development, is an introgressed gene from neandertal (the gene appeared ~37,000 yrs ago & is common in the rest of the world, but rare in Africa.) The Neandertal did have a larger brain than did sapien, but they were almost a pure carnivoir & required meat to survive, while sapien could survive for long periods on either plant or animal material. The neandertal, due to their muscular development, required double or tripple the amount of food of the sapien to survive. We have no data proving the neandertal or erectus was not on par with sapien in intelligence. This is something the media likes to play with.

Mungo man, found in Australia (dated 40 to 50,000 yrs ago), appears to be a modern sapien, but the MtDNA tests as closer to neandertal than to to sapien... causing much confusion among the replacement crowd.

Icabod: Your Afrocentric information is nearly 10 yrs out of date. We have made some new discoveries these past 10 yrs... I think Trinkaus, Wolpoff, Hawks, Lahn & others have uncovered information that requires serious investigation & should not be written off, simply because it doesn't agree with some of the mainstream pushing their own politically correct agenda.

P.S. Recent genetic information indicates only 370,000 yrs since the Neandertal/Sapien had a common ancestor. It is very probable they could not only interbreed, but could produce fertile offspring. I find it improbable that Homo erectus could only evolve in Africa, & remain static in Asia.

Recent testing of Neanderthal DNA show that present day humans are not descended from the Neanderthals. This has placed them outside the human line of descent. However, it should be remembered that this has happened before, Neanderthals were out, only to be put back in.

There have been supposed hybrids found. The remains are few in number and when compared to the range of physical characteristics present in each species: "are either typically Neanderthal or modern (10) and, in one significant case, had been misdated ... that nobody has had any idea what a Neanderthal/modern hybrid might look like in theory"

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/13/7117

Recently, the ear bones of Neanderthals were determined to be greatly different from that of humans. In the human development, the trend has been towards larger loops in the bones. Neanderthal bones have much smaller loops. The pelvis and leg bones are also less suited to long distance movement. Based on this thought is humans moved into the steppes of Europe as the climate changed. Neanderthals remained in the increasingly isolated and shrinking woodlands. The two groups had little contact with each other.

Recently a theory has been proposed that Neanderthal genes are somehow responsible for Autism in humans "however much of it being of an only circumstantial nature."

http://www.farviolet.com/~entropy/neanderthal/

The theory proposes that genes brought in by interbreeding have caused or contributed to Autism and ADHD. The challenge to this theory is that it's based primarily on assumptions of the Neanderthals. As example the lack of eye contact in Autistics is due to Neanderthal genes as "Although nothing is known about Neanderthal eye contact, lack of it is common in other primate species." One comparison: "Neanderthals had "rodeo-type" injuries, which might suggest they had different sensitivity to pain." is more likely due to what they hunters, reindeer and the techniques they used.

As one site reported "If this theory is correct, we would expect autism and ADHD to be disorders almost exclusive of European populations." due to the fact Neanderthals live primarily in Europe and not Asia or Africa. This is not the case.

While intriguing interbreeding hasn't been demonstrated. The DNA says separate species and supposed hybrids still fall into the physical variations found in each group.Disorders ascribes to Neanderthal genes, such as autism, rely on conjecture.

In the Middle East, sites have been found that show successions of human and Neanderthal occupation.Dating has show these were due to the climatic changes over thousands of years and the two groups were not contemporary in their occupations.

In summary, it's very unlikely we carry any Neanderthal genes.

As for "Do you beleive that lesser intelligent people might have a closer link to the Nearthentals than others with a very high IQ" you're suggesting that there is a racist split in the human race. There's no evidence for that

If the powers that be accepted that Neanderthalis was the true origin it would surely be called : Homo neanderthalis, so No; and the same goes for Cro magnon. My own personal belief, is that Cro magnon were and are human beings. We cant keep making new slots forever.

All that Ed said.

There's the suggestion we may have actually picked up a gene that improves brain function from the Neanderthals, MCPH1.You don't see it in African populations, and it's had a very rapid spread, probably with multiple points of origin Iin Europe and East Asia.

Neanderthals were probably a small minority contributor the the modern gene pool, not our main ancestor.

Neanderthals and homo sapiens are two different species that overlapped for about 30,000 years. The theory most accepted (right now) is that there was no interbreeding. The DNA was too different.

The Neanderthals are a completely different species altogether. Makes you wonder, though, what the common ancestor between them and cro-magnum (our supposed ancestor) looked like, or even what it was called and even (again) whether or not there's any fossil evidence been found of it?

Given that you ask the question about the relationship between us and Neanderthals, means that you're not sure of your facts, so it validates and qualifies you to ask the later question. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, we all make mistakes. But the silly reaction and attitude of all the omnipotent 'know-alls' who try to score points by ridiculing you, makes me ashamed to be on the same page as them.

DNA has proven that Neanderthals and Homo Erectus were both dead end human like off shoots that are not related to present day humans.

As far as I am aware Neanderthals pre dated Cro-magnons...evidence suggests that the brain of Neanderthal man was bigger than Modern man...Whilst there is no direct evidence, there is a suggestion that they may have interbred...as for your second point....you talk nonsense.

Neanderthals were a dead-end species.

We are not mixed with their genome.

We are homo-sapiens period.

Although us, homo-sapiens... and the neanderthals branched from a SINGLE-species many eons ago.....

As for intelligence... it has nothing to do with being neanderthal.. but it does have to do partially with your genome.. and how far you push yourself to learn

Neanderthals were our "cousins" rather than our "parents". They were from a different species but related to us.

I don't think we're mixed. There have been some theories that they might mixed, but if they did their children would be sterile, like mules (from horses and donkeys).

Actually Neanderthals' brain was bigger than ours.