Bones of Love Child From Two Different Hominin Species Discovered in CaveTo put things in a proper time scale perspective:
Scientists believe that Neanderthals and Denisovans diverged from a common ancestor more than 390,000 years ago. They inhabited Eurasia until they were replaced by modern humans around 40,000 years ago — and they tended to mate with anatomically modern humans as well.
The remains of a non-human hybrid between these two groups was found and analyzed.
About 90,000 years ago, a young girl lived in the Altai Mountains, a remote range located in what is now Russia. She died when she was only 13 years old, and her bones were piled up in a cave. Those bones revealed she was the child of an unconventional couple: two now-extinct hominins, a Neanderthal and a Denisovan.
Why is this particularly interesting?
“We knew from previous research that Neanderthals and Denisovans, who were two genetically distinct groups of ancient hominins, occasionally mixed with each other,” Slon tells Inverse. “But to actually find an offspring of such mixing — that was completely unexpected.”
Lots more info in the full article!
LINK:
https://www.inverse.com/article/48304-ancient-human-mating-neanderthal-denisovan