And yet they were interbreeding for the last 7000 years of Neanderthals’ existence as a separate population. Interbreeding with ferile offspring says there was only one species involved unless one could say that red haired and black haired people are different species.
“Interbreeding with fertile offspring says there was only one species involved unless”
Yes, exactly. If they want to say that Neanderthals were a separate species, then they need to change the definition of “species” to remove the fertility/sterile elements. Maybe it’d be more accurate to say that Neanderthals were a “race.”