Scientists might seem like the only group of people in the world who
Aren't really into a good gossipy sex scandal, but that, in fact, my friends, is not true at all
They love to talk about sex
Especially when it's the sex lives of our prehistoric ancestors
So, scientists are currently gossiping up a storm about the fact that our early ancestors,
The first homo sapiens, may have interbred with some other species
Which is weird
It's long been accepted by the scientific community that homosapiens, like me
And probably you
Originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago
As far as we can tell, they stayed there for about 140,000 years,
Until they started to get frisky and struck out into the unknown
One of the things that those adventurous humans discovered out there in the wide world
Was an older, more primitive, bigger-boned, species of great ape that we call Neanderthal
You may call them NeanderTHals but we, and the scientific community, call them NeanderThals
Because that's what they called themselves
Actually, it's because that's what the cave where their first fossils were found is called
It was NeanderThal. Not NeanderTHal.
It's just how they spell it
Neanderthals are, of course, related to humans, but their evolutionary lines had split about 350,000 years before
But, just because Neanderthals and humans were not the same species,
Did that prevent them from getting it on?
No
And it appears that we were similar enough species that we were actually able to create viable offspring
Studies have shown that, despite the fact that Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago
They live on
In us
According to this research, between one and 4 percent of human DNA is actually Neanderthal DNA
So, you might as well unstitch your family crest from your smoking jacket
But, Neanderthals might, actually, not be the only ancient hominids that humankind had intimate relations with
The recently discovered Denisovans,
Which probably shared more in common with Neanderthals than with humans
Are showing up in the genome of people all over southeast Asia
So, it turns out that we had a lot more choices of people
Or, you know, sort-of people
To mate with back in the olden days
But, we're not done messing with your conception of what humanity is yet,
Because turns out that some of your ancestors may, in fact, have had sexy times with gorillas
The reason they think this is not to do with our genome, it's to do with the genome of lice
And, stick with me, because yeah
I bet you're probably clicking away from the video right now
So, most species of mammals have one species of lice that's specific to them
It lives on them and only them, but all over them
Now, humans are a little different
Because we have isolated pockets of hair
We actually have two species of lice
We have head lice and we have pubic lice
And that's different from every other mammals' lice
But, our pubic lice?
Is very, very, surprisingly and upsettingly similar to the species that lives on gorillas
No!
God, no!
Why did we even look into this?
But, even if our ancestors were having sex with the ancestors of gorillas
Which, hopefully, they weren't
I'm still keeping that as a possibility in my mind
It probably was happening like 3.3 million years ago
So, you probably don't have to run straight to the shower and scrub your skin off with a pumice stone
At the moment
But, still, dang!
Australopithecus
You dirty dog
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Transcribed by Ethan M.