Did the Neanderthals and Homospaiens from thousands of years ago go extinct and we are their great grand children? Like most of us have some Neanderthal DNA so does that mean they never died out?

Question

I was just thinking about this, and wanted to ask

In: Biology

Answer 1

Most of us have some† DNA identical to a banana’s DNA. I don’t think that makes us a banana. Neanderthals went extinct when there were no more of them around. Modern humans evolved from them, over many generations, but that’s not the same as being them.

† Edit: Clearly, having all our DNA identical to a banana would make us a banana. Sorry if that was unclear.