[ek_hornbeck]

Yes, they account for about 1-2% of our DNA today (at least if you're of European or Asian ancestry, Africans have none). It's like coyotes in the northeastern US and SE Canada having some wolf ancestry as well. But the original H. sapiens were not descended from Neanderthals.

Neanderthals were our (ugly) kissing cousins, not our direct ancestors.

[SunkenCiv]

They were definitely our ancestors. We carry as much (known) Neandertal DNA as we do from each of our great-great-great-great-grands.

[SunkenCiv]

• New study identifies Neanderthal ancestry in African populations and describes its origin
  Aaron Wolf | Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics | Jan. 30, 2020