[PapaBear3625]

The question is whether Neanderthals were a breed of homo sapiens, or whether they were a distinct human species.

The defining characteristic determining whether two groups are the same species is whether they can interbreed and produce viable offspring. The research currently under discussion indicates that the humans who encroached on Neanderthal territory (Europeans and Asians) have genes in common with Neanderthals, while sub-Saharan Africans do not. If we were able to interbreed, then Neanderthal is another race of Men, and are not apes (with whom we CANNOT interbreed).

[varmintman]

The defining characteristic determining whether two groups are the same species is whether they can interbreed and produce viable offspring.

That's right. And all available REAL evidence i.e. fossil evidence, indicates that humans and neanderthals couldn't.

James Shreeve's 1996 paper from Dioscover:

http://discovermagazine.com/1995/sep/theneanderthalpe558

discusses the lack of real evidence and the later dna evidence explained the mystery. Again neanderthal dna is about halfway between ours and that of a chimpanzee.

[varmintman]

Part of the problem is that the evolutionites, stupid though they may be, have figured out that they have a problem i.e. that all other hominids were further removed from us THAN the neanderthal and that if the neanderthal has been ruled out as a human ancestor (it has), then there is basically nothing on this planet that we could be descended from via any process resembling evolution. The revisionism we are seeing now amounts to wishful thinking and a late understanding of their problem.