Did Homo sapiens and Neanderthals Interbreed?

Clip: Season 52 Episode 14 | 2m 59sVideo has Closed Captions

Ancient bones reveal that early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals didn’t just coexist.

For years, scientists argued about whether Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthal groups in Europe. The Oase fossils show that the two species did mix.

10/01/2025

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- [Narrator] For thousands of years, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals lived in close proximity.

But how close were we?

(dramatic music) For decades, most assumed interbreeding between our two species didn't happen.

But in the early 2000s, this was called into question by new finds in Romania, bone fragments dating back to around 40,000 years ago, which were painstakingly reassembled to reveal humans with a mysterious mix of features.

(box clatters) - It even smells like a fossil.

This, I assume, is Oase 1.

- [Speaker] This one is Oase 1.

- And that's Oase 2.

- That's Oase 2.

- This is quite special 'cause I've read about them, I've studied them.

They're hugely significant fossils.

But I've never... I've never seen the originals.

I've never been this close to them.

It's... - It looks and it is modern Homo sapiens.

But it has some features which are more like Neanderthal.

Like this one, it's quite clear.

It's a mandible of a modern human with this chin.

- So there's a chin.

- The chin, yeah.

- And Neanderthals don't have a chin.

Neanderthals' chin kind of recedes.

- [Speaker] But then you see the size of the molars, which are really huge.

- More a Neanderthal feature.

- Modern sapiens but with Neanderthal teeth.

Yeah, Oase 2 has the same hybrid features.

Like if you look at the face.

- You look at that and you do think that's Homo sapiens.

And then it has these features on it, which are more Neanderthal.

Like this occipital bun here at the back, that bulge at the back of the skull here.

- Yeah.

That's kind of strange.

It's not a Neanderthal but it has Neanderthal features, which prompt us to think about some sort of interbreeding, Neanderthal, Homo sapiens interbreeding.

It was pretty controversial.

People were just not ready to accept that.

(calm music) - [Narrator] Around a decade after the bones were discovered came a revolutionary breakthrough.

Advances in genetic analysis allowed scientists to extract DNA from ancient fossils, proving these two species could and did produce offspring.

(calm music)