• Mothra
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    5 days ago

    I understand your sentiment but if my biology memory from uni is correct, one of the rules scientists use and not often mention is that you can’t breed with specimens that are now extinct. In other words because you can’t prove the outcome of a hypothetical hybrid there is enough room for doubt and calling it a species is correct.

    Or maybe I’m arse pulling this one off. If someone can confirm/deny that’d be great.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      We don’t need to watch a Homo Sapien bang a Homo Neanderthal to know if they could interbreed because modern humans have neanderthal DNA…

      Some people have Denovasian too, and Denovasians had some Neanderthal as well.

      Like, what more evidence do you expect to have before known written language? You want cave drawing version of pornhub to prove it?

      We know because their genes live on in modern humans, interbreeding was possible.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Fun fact:

          The reason cave paintings are blurry may be because a flickering torch combined with a shrinking amount of oxygen can lead to them appearing to move like a gif…

          So, like, by a certain definition the vids may exist.

          But it would be hard to clearly differentiate unless it’s like that gif of Futurama death by snu snu.

    • Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win
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      4 days ago

      It’s not just due to extinction. If the two species are genetically compatible, but have incompatibilities when mating in the wild, they can be considered distinct.

      Ie: Dogs vs Wolves, Galapagos finches

      In the case of extinct hominids, this whole conversation tree is argued for years in a series of papers until research convincingly shows the distinction is sufficient to warrant labelling as a new species.