Does this mean that neanderthal and homo sapiens had a common ancestor or does it mean they came from two distinct lines and then bred together 30,000 years ago?
I didn’t think you could breed together and have offspring unless you had a common ancestor to begin with and were very genetically similar.
We had a common ancestor, we diverged into two distinct populations, and these two lines combined in a limited fashion by crossbreeds sometime prior to 30,000 years ago when the Neanderthal died out.
Yes, usually fertility between two different species is dependent upon a recent common ancestor, which implies/demands a certain level of genetic similarity. The big barrier to fertile cross breeds is when there is a different number of chromosomes in the parents. Not impossible to overcome, but it does increase infertility.
Similarly, Wolves and Coyotes share a recent common ancestor, AND they came from two distinct lines that have bred together years ago. Coyotes and Wolves developed into two distinct species, but two species that can and DO produce fertile offspring. One can, through DNA analysis, estimate the amount of Wolf ancestry in your average Coyote population - which will show how prevalent these crossbreedings were (or are).
So, then what’s 0bama’s excuse?