What if the Neanderthals had never gone extinct?

The Neanderthals, as you know, were a human species that lived in Europe and Western Asia between about 130, 000 and 30, 000 years ago, but for some reason - possibly related to our arrival in the piece! - it eventually became extinct.

Neanderthal

This one looks nice! (Sci News)

Thanks to the discovery of a host of fossils and endless research, we know a lot about these distant relatives today. There are, for example, several genetic studies that point out that Neanderthals and modern humans have had affairs in the past and even mixed in Europe.

Furthermore, based on the bones found, morphological analyzes and reconstructions performed, we know that they were shorter and “stockier” than us, that their jaws, foreheads and noses were more protruding. We even have an idea what the voices of our past cousins ​​were like! But what if they had never disappeared from the planet, what would have happened?

What if...?

In fact, one of the most widely accepted theories is that the extinction of Neanderthals is related to the arrival of Homo sapiens - that is, our arrival! - and the competition for food and territory that possibly happened between the two species during the last Ice Age. However, if this friction had not occurred, some believe that small isolated groups of Neanderthals could have persisted in Europe.

Neanderthal Man

What if ... (The New Yorker / Atelier Daynès / S. Entressangle)

On the other hand, according to Adam Hadhazy of the Live Science website, the truth is that if they had survived the last Ice Age, their race would have been assimilated or disappeared anyway. This is because, as mentioned above, genetic analysis has revealed that humans and Neanderthals have met in the past, so much so that the current population of Eurasia has between 1% and 4% DNA of this species in its genome.

Thus, since the initial population of Neanderthals was much smaller than that of Homo sapiens, unless they could remain completely isolated, union with humans (which existed in a much larger number of individuals) would eventually happen, their genome. it would eventually blend into ours until ... practically disappear. And the difference would be that our genetic code would have a greater "contribution" from genes of this species - and perhaps we would have inherited some of its physical characteristics as well.