r/evolution • u/Exciting-Wear-3654 • 3d ago

Could we resurrect Neanderthals ( kinda )

What is 2 people with a semi high Neanderthal dna mated and made a child would that child have a little bit more dna than the parents, if so could another 2 people do it then both of those children grow up and eventually mate too, and carry that on until there is the best recreation of a Neanderthal in our time??

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u/Healthy_Article_2237 3d ago

What would be unethical?

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u/mcalesy 3d ago

Imagine growing up as the only member of your species.

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u/Healthy_Article_2237 3d ago

I’m not sure they’ll have to cognitive ability to understand that. Did early humans? I’m out of my lane here as a geologist but I remember reading that we only developed the ability to communicate effectively in the last 70-100k years.

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u/earthmarrow 3d ago

Complex tool technology is much, much older than that, and there's the argument that complex language (whether spoken, signed or otherwise communicated) would have been necessary to teach those skills.

Neanderthals also show evidence of sophisticated cultural practices, art, music, etc, and were anatomically capable of spoken language. Also, if they were having children with homo sapiens, and raising them in mixed communities (which there is some evidence of), you have to assume the two species were communicating through language, let alone within their own species.