I'm finishing up a unit in Anthropolgy and Evolution - "Stones & Bones"

We got past all the background base knowledge you need for micro-evolution (genetic mutation etc) and then moved into speciation... then we JUST jumped into the chapters on Ancient Primates, and next is the early hominids.

So, we're about to do the deep dive into Europe, Neanderthal, Denosivian (sp?) etc...

so I'm definitely bookmarking this for future reference! Thanks

Breeding between Sapiens and Neandertal was most likely infrequent. And like most cross species breeding we know about today, the males were infertile. Fertile females obviously existed, since we're here. I don't know how many generations it took to produce fertile males desending down the hybrid female line..

The Neandertals were wiped out by the Campanian Ignimbrite Event, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not enough stragglers were left to produce non sterile males through successive generations.

It probably wasn't all bad for the sterile males, any horny females who wanted their fun without the consequences would have found them extremely attractive.

Before modern human men get too confident, the human Y is most likely on its way out, too, but for another reason.. Here is a good discussion of why it's not going to be a problem: https://geneticsunzipped.com/transcripts/2023/03/23/bye-bye-y

If anything, the aftermath of the eruption, a colder climate. would have suited them.

have shown increasing prevalence of the diseases of inbreeding. Yes, they were on the skids before that volcano blew up.

The ejecta from the Campanian eruption headed over Greece towards the Russian steps

Campanian Ignimbrite’s contribution to the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition.