A model of a Neanderthal male in the Natural History Museum, London. Researchers believe breeding with Homo sapiens could have given their babies a fatal blood disorderSex with modern humans may have proved deadly for Neanderthals, scientists have discovered, finding that it could have led to a blood disorder in their babies that helped to drive them to extinction. Researchers analysed the blood types of three Neanderthals and found that they were particularly susceptible to a blood disorder that left their babies with anaemia that could prove fatal. SponsoredThe condition, called “haemolytic disease of the foetus and newborn”, or HDFN, is often worse in second and subsequent pregnancies and would have limited the number of offspring Neanderthals could have, reducing their “reproductive success”. Considering their relatively small gene pool, this disease would have been “quite common” among Neanderthals and is likely to have played a part in “leading to their demise”,

Source: The Times July 28, 2021 18:00 UTC