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They were humans, right? Just not homo sapiens. Human is the genus, not the species?
by malloryerik 9y ago
They were humans, right? Just not homo sapiens. Human is the genus, not the species?
- crowbahr 9y agoCorrect. Also they are still in our genome to varying degrees.
- saalweachter 9y agoYeah, that comment started out as "anatomically modern humans" with a caveat on later interbreeding before editing; I hope the elisions were a net gain for getting the point across, if slightly less precise.
- dalbasal 9y agoYes. But species are to some extent artificial categories. Sapiens and Neanderthals were close. Genetically compatible and behaviorally similar (as far as we can tell). It would not be unreasonable to define them all as subspecies or ever varieties within a species.
- Mayzie 9y agoLike dogs!
- danieltillett 9y agoApart from the minor fact that until we knew some of us are descended from Neanderthal they were consider by everyone to be different species. Ideology 1, science 0.
- dalbasal 9y agoIt's impossible to deny that studies of our biology attracts a lot of interest, and we're not best placed for objectivity. That said, tghe splitter-lumper dynamic always exists. Are polar bears just big, white, aquatic brown bears that don't hibernate, or a species? New information about interbreeding should tip the balance in favour of subsceices. That's happening. Science works. I don't think there's an ideology problem here, at least not more than anywhere else. ideology: 1 , science: 1.1 - slight edge
- eru 9y agoWolfs, dogs and coyotes interbreed, too. And coyotes have long been thought their own species. (They are quite fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf .)