I'm not saying it isn't worth discussing pre-homo sapien speciation at all, I'm saying that the vague idea that the Neanderthals are some "other thing" from our

I'm not saying it isn't worth discussing pre-homo sapien speciation at all, I'm saying that the vague idea that the Neanderthals are some "other thing" from our genetic heritage (as compared with, say, Cro-Magnon) has become less tenable as genetic analysis has advanced. The story of Neanderthal is, for many of us, partly the story of us. Genetically, some of us have the equivalent of a great-great grandparent that was Neanderthal.