Did breeding with neanderthals make humans smarter?

If Neanderthal genes were harmful, humans would have lost them. So breeding with Neanderthals almost certainly didn't make us dumber. But smarter? Almost certainly not. Why? Because plenty of really smart humans have no or effectively no neanderthal DNA. read more

” That is hard to know since we don’t know the Neanderthals’ genetic potential for intelligence. But we do know that by the time Neanderthals and African humans met, African tools and weapons were both more practical and more elegant. The Neanderthals had larger brains but also larger bodies. read more

Ugly old theory: We wiped out the Neanderthals because we were smarter. Sensitive new theory: We fell in love with Neanderthals and had smart babies together. Hybrid theory: We had smart babies together, and our babies wiped out the Neanderthals. (For Human Nature's previous update on sex with Neanderthals, click here. read more