NOBODY's ancestors were Neanderthals, in any way, shape, or manner, we're not related to Neanderthals or any other ape or hominid at all. The claim that Asians and Europeans have 4% Neanderthal genes while Africans don't is idiotic to the extent that people are using that to claim that European or Asian ancestors interbred with Neanderthals, it never happened. There's almost no genetic diversity in modern humans compared to other mammals. That indicates a very recent bottleneck at which the human population numbered no more than fifty to a hundred individuals. Any crossbreeding with a glorified ape PRIOR to that bottleneck and Africans would not get left out. Any crossing with a glorified ape AFTER the bottleneck but not involving Africans, and the genetic gap between Africans and everybody else would be gigantic, and not minuscule as it is.
Hominids such as the Neanderthal were the most advanced member of the same family of creatures as chimpanzees and gorillas; we are simply not a member of that family.
That indicates a very recent bottleneck at which the human population numbered no more than fifty to a hundred individuals.
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... very recent bottleneck = Mt Toba supervolcano eruption circa 74,000 BC. Very few of us survived.