[Verginius Rufus]

If Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred, what is the justification for treating the Neanderthals as a separate species?

[TexasFreeper2009]

they aren't. The fact is, if they were alive today, we would just call them another race.

race = breed

but most people never see the obvious.

[Red Badger]

None, really, unless you are a WAYSIST!..................

[TigersEye]

Coyotes and wolves can interbreed. Are they different species (yes, according to current taxonomy) or the same species?

[pierrem15]

I've read there's some genetic evidence that male offspring of a Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal would have been sterile.

So almost a separate species.

[Kenny Bunk]

That Neandertals and Cromagnons interbred is, IMNVHO, an established fact. Now the question becomes, "How well and how often did they interbreed?" Was the half-breed hybrid offspring successful? As a hybrid a Neandertal/Cromagnon cross might have been mostly sterile, like a horse/donkey cross. Maybe a few of the hybrids were able to breed, but bred with other Cromagnons, diluting the DNA.

E.G., they have spent years trying to crossbreed cattle and buffalo. Looks as if it would be easy, right? So nowadays, we are a modern human/Neandertal hybrid, but the Neandertal DNA is down to just a trace. So, like horse and donkey, we remain two separate species, and with just a trace, we identify with the Mod Hums.

PS:
Warning. All I know about anthropology and Paleontology, I learned from Red Badger and from the pamphlets in a Holiday Inn Express suite.

[SunkenCiv]

Someone’s professor said it, someone believes it, that settles it. :’)