How could Interbreeding with Homo Sapiens have lead to the demise of the...

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ChristianS

New member
...Neanderthals? Hey Guys!
I have evidence that shows that the two species crossed paths, and other stuff that points to them interbreeding, but I need something to show how it could've possibly lead them to their extinction.
Thanks :)
 
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Victor

Member
Perhaps their demise was inevitable, and unrelated to the fact that there is evidence of occasional interbreeding (1-4% DNA traces) between "cousins".
That is what's noteworthy!
 
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RayG

Member
I don't know if it has any merit, but I remember being very taken by the neatness of the theory proposed by the palaeontologist and writer Björn Kurtén in his novel "Dance of the Tiger" (see Wikipedia for summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_of_the_Tiger ).

Kurtén proposed the idea that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons could interbreed, but produced sterile hybrids. In the book, the mechanism for extinction was skewed sexual selection because of different appearances: Neanderthals looked brutish to Cro-Magnons, but Cro-Magnons looked attractive to Neanderthals. That meant Neanderthals were more likely to get involved in sterile cross-species matings, and so their population declined compared to the Cro-Magnons, who mostly went for fertile matings with each other.

Maybe nonsense, but it's far from implausible.
 
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