eli5 If it’s suspected that early humans interbred with other species of humans, why would they be considered different species since the offspring were obviously fertile?
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Long story short: “species” is a somewhat arbitrary way to decide that two groups of organisms are different from each other. But that’s not really how evolution works. As one species diverges from another from a common ancestor, there’s a gradient – and often there’s a time period when they look/behave differently but can still interbreed. But overall, each population keeps to themselves and they end up on different evolutionary pathways. So it makes sense to call them different species even though they could still breed for a time.
Y’all have probably been taught the “biological species concept” in high school which is that two populations that can interbreed are considered the same species. That’s SOMETIMES true, but not always- there are many, many exceptions to that rule and other definitions of what makes a species a species. We can define species in many ways, and the ability to produce fertile/viable offspring is just ONE small part of it.
Source: I’m a biologist
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