But the genetic patterns in living people tell us assimilation to some degree did happen. Though Neanderthals remained physically distinct even in their last visible skeletal remains, the scale and repetition of interbreeding, plus the range of retained genes in us, means they were – and are – human. Biologically speaking, individuals who can mate and create viable offspring are the same species. Chimpanzees and bonobos, who are both physically and socially quite different, have only been separated since around 850 ka; roughly the same time that our own ancestors separated from the lineage
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