[VadeRetro]

I like this for some reason. It means that, yes, most of our heritage came out of Africa recently but there probably was some interbreeding with the hominids who had fanned out earlier, including the neanderthals.

I thought all would depend upon isolating neanderthal nuclear DNA, a thing which may never happen. However, I wasn't reckoning with the ingenuity of the scientists in the field. There's another way. They have found some few genes which a lot of non-Africans have and which Africans don't. These genes may be the heritage of our interbreeding with not-so-related hominids after the last radiation from the breeding ground.

I'm pinging blam because I know he also likes the idea that the neanderthals are still around -- in us.

[PatrickHenry]

It means that, yes, most of our heritage came out of Africa recently but there probably was some interbreeding with the hominids who had fanned out earlier, including the neanderthals.

Not necessarily. This old "non-African" gene could have originated in Africa, but it might have been a local thing, and was mostly concentrated in the tribes that migrated out. The migrants took it with them before it had a chance to spread throughout Africa.

[blam]

The Peopling Of The World