Taxonomic position of Neandertals

[djoser-xyyman]

xSamples and species
J.C.M. Ahern
Department of Anthropology, University of
Wyoming
The taxonomic position of Neandertals has
been the longest ongoing debate in
paleoanthropology. Since the late 1980’s,
this debate has been framed within the
contemporary controversy surrounding modern
human origins. In many respects, the
taxonomy of Neandertals has become the
lynchpin of the modern human origins debate.
If Neandertals were not one of us and were
rather “ Homo neanderthalensis, ”
Multiregional Evolution could be regarded as
incorrect, while if Neandertals were Homo
sapiens, Recent African Evolution could be
regarded as incorrect.

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[djoser-xyyman]

He is a additional spin


Statistical Methods to Detect Archaic Admixture and Identify Introgressed Sequences(2019)
Liming Li Joshua M. Akey

Abstract
Genome‐scale sequencing data sets from many taxa have shown that hybridization across leaky species boundaries is common in natural populations. This observation extends to our own species, as gene flow between anatomically modern humans and other hominins, such as Neanderthal and Denisovans, has been well established. In this chapter, we describe statistical approaches that have been used to test hypotheses of gene flow between species and identify introgressed sequences. These methods provide powerful tools to investigate population history, understand mechanisms of evolutionary change, and better understand the heritable basis of phenotypic variation.

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What does it mean? If there is "introgression" also amongst other species is it really "ancient sexual contact" or just common ancestry?