Our Ancestor Homo Erectus Is 200,000 Years Older Than Previously Thought

[wnylib]

9. Sounds about right. Neanderthal and

Denisovan intermating with sapiens would have produced a stronger hybrid, more capable of survival, so that "pure" hominins died out as the combo version expanded and absorbed them.

Smithsonian had an article some time ago about how we inherited genes from Neanderthal and Denisovan that made us more capable of fighting viruses that those two hominins had been exposed to prior to Sapiens' arrival to regions outside of Africa. The down side is that it also left us vulnerable to overactive immune responses like allergies, especially to grass and tree pollens.

As someone with multiple allergies (pollens, foods, medicines), who went into anaphylaxis in the doc's office when tested for pollens, I suspect that I have a lot of Neanderthal ancestors.