If animals with the same genus but but different species breed produce infertile offsprings, how come modern humans have traces of Homo Neanderthal DNA

Question

Is Homo genus the exception of this? I have pretty much zero knowledge in biology but been curious about this for a while and can’t get it out of my head.

In: 10

Answer 1

Neanderthals are often classified as a subspecies of *Homo sapiens*. In this scheme they’re *Homo sapiens neanderthalensis* and we’re *Homo sapiens sapiens*. Although the truth of the matter is that ability to interbreed isn’t a clear-cut delineator of species; there are lots of exceptions to that general rule.