Findings confirm that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred
Some of the human X chromosome comes from Neanderthals, which is found only in people outside Africa, according to a team of researchers led by the University of Montreal’s Damian Labuda, who is also affiliated with the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre. According to him, these findings confirm that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals, something his team believes happened early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East. Neanderthals, who mostly evolved in what is today France, Spain, Germany and Russia, were physically stronger than modern humans, and had the gene for language; they may even have played the flute.