Grateful to Neanderthals

I had a question in my mind once. It was about why people have races like White, Black, Asian, and all that. Of course, there were factors such as temperature and climate, but there was a point when we began to evolve faster.

Homo sapiens, as we call the species, originated in Africa. They had a body structure similar to that of the African and Black people we see around today. And, of course, the human species evolved. Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa around 60,000–70,000 years ago and encountered Neanderthals in Europe and Asia. There was significant geographical overlap, leading to interactions ranging from trade and cultural exchange to conflict and interbreeding.

Interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens occurred mainly between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago, after modern humans migrated out of Africa and encountered Neanderthals in Eurasia.

Today, 1–4% of the DNA of non-African humans comes from Neanderthals. This percentage is small but has profound effects on human traits.

How the percentages are distributed:

East Asians:

Have slightly more Neanderthal DNA (~2.3%) than Europeans (~1.8%), likely due to additional mixing events.

Africans:

Have almost no Neanderthal DNA because their ancestors never interbred with Neanderthals, who lived only in Eurasia.

As the species still on Earth, and probably predicted to be the last humans left, originated from Africa, which had comparatively higher temperatures, they moved out and interbred with Neanderthals, adapting to cooler environments. And that's how these races, such as Asian, European, and African, began to spread.

Though it can't be said that, without Neanderthals, we could never have made it out of Africa, because it would have happened anyway, it would probably have taken more time.

As Neanderthals helped Homo sapiens spread more rapidly, there is a sense of gratitude we all should show to them.

Thank you, Neanderthals.