Is it possible, likely, or improbable, that different Species of Hominins interbred 0-2 million years ago...?

Question

...resulting in the final emergence of Homo Sapiens?

i.e. Homo ergaster, 1.9 million BP
Homo erectus, 1.7 million BP
Homo antecessor, 0.8 million BP
Homo heidelbergensis, 0.6 million BP
Homo idaltu, 0.2 million BP

That is, since there was a time when several varieties of Homonin roamed Africa simultaneously, and were not exceptionally different in apearance...

Interbreeding could have been a major cause for an accelerated rate of mutations, many of which were successful...

What say you?

Just to clarify a bit, let's say from 2 million years ago, until the Toba volcanic eruption in Sumatra, 75,000 years ago, because after that event, only about 10,000 or less Homo sapiens survived...resulting in a genetic base for all the people alive today!

Answer 1

A few years ago, ergaster was thought to be a separate species distinct from Asian erectus. They then found some in Africa that had characteristics of both. Many fell that means they are the same species. It could be a hybrid or a third species. Since they found erectus and habilis cohabitating Africa ~1.6 million years ago, the multiple species of erectus/ergaster seems more likely. There is also evidence from DNA studies that we had hybrids in the past. I assume that a certain number of genes have distinct and different ages but I am not sure about the exact data that makes them think that. They were talking about a hybrid sometime around the time of the common ancestor with chimps.

Answer 2

Among erectus/ergaster there was certainly cross breeding. However, most cross breeding would likely be between subspecies, such as the population of erectus at China and Java. There was likely only a little interbreeding between later hominin species. This can partly be verified by the fact that humans show very little genetic variability, indicating they likely all originated from a single shared small population.

Answer 3

Speaking off the top of my head on this, I would say it is possible, but something we'll never know.

Due to the general scantiness of the fossil remains, we'll never know enough about the ecology and interactions (if any) among hominid species in any one area in any one restricted time period.

wl

Answer 4

Its what we do,When your choices are limited,If you cant be with the one you love love the one your with,climactic changes along with huge distances between the peoples,its not like today where there's a humanoid every two miles,vast distances,slower than most predators,slim chance of finding others ,but still stranger things have happened.

Answer 5

Likely.

We studied human evolution at school this year and we were told that it's very likely that H. sapiens and H.neanderthalensis most likely interbred, but we'll never know for sure.

Answer 6

I think that is possible and several Sci-Fi authors have touched on that very point.
Often I wonder if it is more than just a figment of their imagination.

Answer 7

Yes, very much. I believe the evolutionary and the creationism stories support an inbredding beginning to our modern humans.

Answer 8

not sure, but sounds fun to speculate.

Answer 9

g

Answer 10

if only time were so tidy and linear as you make it out to be.