Question

QUESTION 2 Which of the following is TRUE regarding the possible interbreeding between the human and Neanderthal species? a. A limited amount of variation has been passed from Homo neanderthalensis to Eurasian populations of Homo sapiens as a result of interbreeding that probably took place in the Near East at some point within the past 100,000 years. b. There is no evidence of hybridization between Neanderthals and modern humans. Both bone mtDNA and genomics studies ruled out such interbreeding. C. Modern humans are more closely related to Neanderthals than to early Homo sapiens since there was extensive interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals about 35,000 years ago. d. Neanderthals share a common ancestor with humans about 250,000 years ago. Both species originated in Africa and migrated to Europe and Asia about 100,000 years ago.

Answer 1

Ans: a A limited amount of variation has been passed from Homo sapiens to Eurasian populations of Homo sapiens as a result of interbreeding that probably took place in the Near East at some point within the past 100,000 years.

This is according to the out-of-Africa hypothesis that hominins left Africa and colonized the Old World in two major waves, first as Homo erectus in an initial wave out of Africa approximately 2 million years ago, and a second time as Homo sapiens approximately 100,000 years ago. According to this view H. sapiens is in fact an enormously variable species with roots extending far back in time to the era of H. erectus.