Humans, Neanderthals Did Not Mate

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Genetic evidence from Neanderthal and early human bones indicates that if there was any intermixing of the two species, it was so little that it left no genetic trace. The discovery was published in the current edition of PloS Biology. This work by a team of European scientists led by Svante Paabo finally brings some solid evidence into the matter, he said.

 

For years anthropologists have been debating whether humans, when they wandered north into Europe from Africa more then 30,000 years ago, might have interbred with Neanderthals who lived there, said Klein. The evidence, until now, was mostly restricted to the shape of fossil bones.

 

via Discovery

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Neanderthals and humans are both very specialized.... I wonder if they (the resulting mixed breed) simply died out because the resulting mixture had a survival disadvantage...

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i saw a while back a documentary from the BBC on the Neanderthals and there (if i remember correctly) it said, that because of the end of the ice age the neanderthal slowly extinct, he was perfectly adapted for cold climate and relied heavily on the mammoth for food, once they died out, the neanderthal followed quickly.