Ancestors?

The Washington Post had a brief story today on the controversy over whether Neanderthals died out or intermingled and passed on their genes to humans.

"Given the data we now have, it would be highly improbable to argue there is no Neanderthal contribution to the early European population that came out of Africa," Trinkaus said. "I believe there was continuous breeding between the two for some period of time.

I would be happy to have Neanderthal ancestors (a replica Neanderthal skull quite like the one above sits on my book shelf here in the nerve center of stately ideofact manor), but I tend to think it's unlikely.