Kind: captions
Language: en
For thousands [music] of years, Homo
sapiens and Neanderthalss lived in close
proximity. [music]
But how close were we?
[music]
For decades, most assumed interbreeding
between our [music] two species didn't
happen.
But in the early 2000s, this was called
[music] into question.
by new [music] finds in Romania.
Bone fragments dating back to around
40,000 years ago,
which were painstakingly [music]
reassembled to reveal humans with a
mysterious mix of features.
It even smells
like a fossil.
This I assume is OASA one.
>> This one is A wasa one.
>> And that's OAS 2.
>> That's was 2.
>> This is quite special cuz 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 um which
are more like Neanderal. Yeah,
>> this one it's quite clear. It's a
mandible of a modern human with this
this chin chin
>> and Neanderthals don't have a chin.
Neanderthal's chin kind of recedes.
>> But then you you see the the size of the
mers
>> which are really huge.
>> More a Neanderthal feature.
>> Modern sapiens but with Neanderal
teeth. Yeah. Was it too has the same
hybrid features?
>> Mhm. Like if you look at the face,
>> you look at that and you 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
neanderal but it's it has neanderal
features which prompt us to think about
some sort of interbreeding
neanderal homo sapiens interbreeding. It
was pretty controversial. People were
just not ready to accept that.
[music]
>> Around a decade after the bones were
discovered came a revolutionary
breakthrough. [music]
Advances in genetic analysis allowed
scientists [music]
to extract DNA from ancient fossils.
>> [music]
>> Proving these two species could and did
produce offspring.