When We Met Other Human Species 

Some commenters have pointed out that calling Neanderthals and Denisovans “other hominin species” in this episode breaks the rules of the biological species concept (BSC), which says if two things can interbreed, then they’re the same species. Some paleoanthropologists would agree. They consider both Neanderthals and Denisovans to be subspecies of Homo sapiens, rather than separate species. Other experts would say that Neanderthals have a set of features that make them clearly distinguishable from Homo sapiens, putting them outside the range of variation we include in our species. And we hardly know the Denisovans - like we said in the video, they don’t even have a scientific name yet. The incredible thing about this is that we can even think about applying the BSC to fossils at all. The BSC is a species concept based on living organisms, and it’s only been within the last two decades or so that we’ve had the ancient DNA and the technology to test hypotheses about interbreeding in extinct groups. And it’s not the only way to define a species, either, so it will likely be a while (if ever) before anthropologists decide whether we’re a different species, subspecies, or population from the Neanderthals and Denisovans. (Darcy Shapiro, PhD, script editor)

I think dolphins and canines should come clean about seals.

Meanwhile in an alternate universe, Neanderthals are watching videos about why humans went extinct.

I have so much respect for all the researchers and scientists who work so passionatley to uncover the mysteries of the past. I find it so hard to imagine how much work it takes to find human remains of so long ago, and all the science that goes into researching the finds.

It’s so sweet to think about our ancestors falling in love and being tender with other hominids and feeling all the ways that we feel about other people!! Human beings have such a great capacity for love when we’re put in the right setting.. If I were an ancient human I would find it really exciting to meet and get to know other hominids.

Imagine if other hominids survived with us. Our world would have had elder scrolls style diversity,

you wouldn't know her, she's from a different species

Just thinking about the interactions of different hominid species (or subspecies) gives me chills. It really highlights that humans are just another species on this planet and like many others that have come before us, we will perish just the same. It’s hard for any human to grasp the concept of geological time.

When they said "They live on in our genes reminding us a time when we weren't alone." it kinda made me emotional man...

"if you can't beat them join them" - some random Neanderthal

_"They controlled fire."_ *Everything changed when the fire nation attacked.*

Imagine seeing a human that looks like you, but is another species, imagine if they existed today, their voices and culture. This is so interesting!

it's mind blowing to think about the fact that in that whole timeline of so many million years you get born into this technological modern world. I know the reason is to answer logical and quite easy but it is just so incredible

(so this is how it worked in the past) Girl: is sitting Guy: hmmmm Girl: stands up on 2 legs Guy: She's the one

There has been a moment in history when there was only one Neanderthal left. Imagine being that one.

It's always so awe inspiring to learn just how many more mysteries our planet holds for us to discover.

Been binge watching these videos. Very informative stuff! Thanks for putting out content like this!

“They live on in our genes, reminding us of a time when we weren’t alone.” chillssssss literally chilss

I highly suspect that a lot of the interbreeding was by archaeologists. As an archaeologist, I've always heard that archaeologists will date any old thing.

Every time I see videos like this it just makes me realize that we are all a small part of a bigger picture.. that should be some motivation to wanna do something great in this lifetime your currently living in.. with all the Technology and resources are ancestors just didn't have..

I feel bad about our ex species, as if, a part of me wants to meet them.

When dwarves, elves, hobbits, orcs, and bear folk existed.

I’m about to have a stroke thinking about how old this planet is.

There are a number of bird species that can interbreed resulting in fertile offerings. Red Siskin and canary, for example, are different species yet they can produce beautiful offsprings.

Discovered this channel today. Loved it!

They looked enough like us that we didn't fear mating with them.

They're called Canadians, and they're people too

Fantastic organisation and description to understand such a very complex subject. Not a lot of people achieves this clarity, I have to say, we’ll done! Would you kindly make a program on the Homo Antecessor, from Atapuerca, Burgos (Spain) ? I am extremely interested on their role on modern human ancestry! I love your eloquence ! ❤️❤️❤️Elena

This is why I love science, you learn so much about our species, our world, and universe.

I guess the real journey was all the friends we reproduced with along the way.

"It wasn't a one-time thing." -Homo Sapiens

I did the national geographic genome project and it came back that I had 3.2% denisovan DNA, which was more than the Neanderthal DNA. I’m from the UK and as far as I’m aware all my family are in the UK. I’d love to find out more about this but I have no clue where to start!

I love this channel, thanks!!!

I love the Internet. I love having the possibility to learn information like this very easily.

This is honestly kinda crazy to me and I think it says something about humanity's desperation for companionship. People will talk to inanimate objects, we adopt pets, we hang out in areas where over a thousand of us live and we're still not satisfied with having that many companions. So we imagined fairies or dragons or other creatures we could communicate and talk to and as we soon learn they probably don't exist, we look to other places where we might find intelligent life, like the stars, or under the sea or we create it ourselves through robots and Artificial Intelligence. There's ghosts in our blood and we're all so desperate for companionship, it. It gives me chills honestly.

Great Video. I was deep in thought about other hominids and why they aren’t here anymore and this video was perfect

Absolutely brilliant ending statement!! I got choked up there for a bit.

After more research, researchers discovered that we're living in a simulation runs by Neanderthals in a quest to find out why human went extinct in their world

imagine there's an island somewhere with somewhat pure neanderthal descent peoples living there

Wow i asked this exact topic/question myself. I find the Idea so fascinating - thank you for this Video

Great stuff! Thank you !

They drew my boy Denisovan like a Dr. Suess Chewbacca.

Everybody: Talking about how Neanderthals are extinct Me: 4% Neanderthal

great video Really well graphed info.

I constantly think about how disappointed I am that the neanderthals proper died out. It would’ve been so interesting to see what the world would look like had TWO groups of sentient species developed here. Wouldn’t make the universe feel so lonely.

"They're shorter, more musculer, and have longer brains" Me: Real living dwarves!!!

Man. I can imagine the hostility we'd have if any of these species survived along with us. Considering how prevalent racism is even after so long within just one specie.

Wow, this was great, thanks!

Basically “Love” helped us better survive as a species than fear and ignorance.

I can’t lie I wish time travel was real so I could go back in time and see the first humans

Humans: “Hey can I copy your homework?” Neanderthals, etc: “sure, just make sure to change it a little bit so it’s not obvious”

Very nice report. Thank you.

Fantastic video this was !

_"It's dark out here, and we're the last humans left."_

Is it possible that they didn't really go extinct, but more so they were a much smaller population and they completely bred into our species over time?

I just love this channel so awesome 😁👏❤️🎉

Such a great episode

Gonna be honest, I thought that neanderthals were just part of the evolution of humans. I literally had no idea that there were ever multiple species of humans living at the same time. This video was super informative and introduced my nerdy ass to a really cool new topic for me to aggressively research. Thanks!

Love it when Hank Green hosts these videos.

love this channel

So basically, our species survived because we swiped right on everyone we came across.

Could you do a video on when true crocodiles, gharials and alligators diverged? There’s some interesting thoughts on why true crocs (even fresh water species) are salt tolerant where gators and caimans are not

Fascinating stuff...

Last human: dies His dog: Aight bipedal time

I love learning about humans.

If only my ancestors picked up some genes to better process fried food and donuts.

I think one thing that isn't brought up often when trying to think about why neanderthals and other hominins went extinct while sapiens didn't, is the fact that we almost went extinct too. It makes much more sense once you realize this. I think we often imagine it as if the other species went extinct because they all had some fatal flaw, and we were simply so much superior, whereas the reality is that our entire genus, including our own species, was on the verge of extinction, and we only barely made it. This video does address some of the potential reasons why we survived. Ultimately, however, it's an amazing lucky fluke of evolution that we did survive. It makes one wonder how many planets out there went through billions of years of evolution to finally produce a species intelligent enough to be capable of a technological civilization, only to end up going extinct before they had a chance to develop that far.

I love finding Hank in weird places! ❤️

"They live in our own genes, reminding us of a time when we weren't alone." Right in the feelings D:

This channel is incredible, I have learned more here about this type of stuff than I have at school which is crazy.

fabulous video

Here three years after this was posted and super glad they changed presenters.

“Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy We’re different species, let’s get freaky”

Back in 2008, National Geographic thought it was quite hard and impossible to trace and evidence that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens interbred, now 11 years later we have this explanation here. Nice

This was awesome

This make me wanna watch a netflix movie where a homo sapien girl falls in love with homo neanderthal man and they run far away from their families who are victim of severe intertribal rivalry....

"We are the Humans. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."

"we met neandertals, but there is no evidence of violence between the species" Does it need to be? We are talking about tribes of humans living next to each other for thousands of years. Of course there was violence

The whole time all I could think of was the John Mulany skit about DNA "Sir, we found a pool of the killer's blood in the hallway!" "Gross. Clean it up! Now, back to my hunch"

Very nice. Thank you.

"Reminds us of a time when we weren't alone" For some reason this hit harder than it should have...

"We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own."

i love watching this episode

And so as they contributed to our survival we contributed to their legacy. They live on through us.

"Denisovans" sounds like the anthropologist let his son name them, and he named them after himself.

Just imagine the racism today if all human species survived........

Excellent video!

you're such a good presenter. heading over to scishow now lol

"Made jewelry" Me: eh thats cool "From eagle talons" Me: Dude, thats boss

Human: I have a round skull Neanderthal: *B I G B R A I N*

Amazing video

I do appreciate your You tube-channel. And I find it highly informative and educational. Of particular interest for me is the other hominids that homo sapiens encountered on their way through history, and how they were influenced by them, and maybe to a certain extent how those other were influenced by us. Personally I would think that when homo sapiens met up with homo neanderthal, I do not think any idea of them being different species ever crossed the mind of either the sapiens or the neanderthal. It was the same people that met, with different cultures and different ways of living. And the difference in looks was probably negligible. They probably met and when they moved apart, I would say that it was highly likely that the two groups had changed members so that some of the sapiens moved on with the neanderthals and some of the neanderthals were incoroporated into the sapiens group. Which implies that interbreeding between the two species was not so uncommon, even if the neanderthals were so few. However, my main concern is a different topic altogether. For example Jane Goodall, the british primatologist, claims that the chimpanzee shares more than 99% of its DNA with humans (homo sapiens). As a result that claim has been established as a fact and you will find frequent references to that "fact" if you search on internet. You (and professor Svante Pääbo) say that homo sapiens shares about 3-4% of its DNA with homo neanderthal. If I should believe both statement at the same time, the conclusion is that the chimpanzee is a closer relative of man than the neanderthal!?? Well, everybody should speak for themselves. My convition is that I am closer related to the neanderthal. What do you people say? Is this topic worthwhile to say something sensible about?

Shout out to my ancestor who bred with some freaky humanoid. You're a real one!

So we survived because we thirsty? Nice

Amazing video!

Jeez, the end of this is so sad. What could have been... 😭😭

And now, we still can’t get along with each other

"Survival of the fittest." Neanderthal: Well, that was a lie.

I'm proud of my ancestors! When they met other kinds of humans, instead of only fighting them, they banged them! Now that's how you do it!

Fascinating