One reason is that we didn’t have much choice. They were more advanced and stronger than us during the Middle Paleolithic. When they invaded the Middle East 120,000 to 45,000 years ago they completely eradicated Homo Sapiens from the area, effectively splitting our genome in two. During this time they traded Homo Sapien women from the Levant all the way up to Siberia. Siberian Neanderthals during this time have Levantine Homo Sapien introgression.
Another reason is that it would not have seemed so strange back then. Some of the fossils we call Homo Sapiens nowadays are just as strange compared to us as Neanderthals were. There were no chins before 120,000 years ago, and they didn’t become popular worldwide until around 10,000 years ago.
We are a very specific type of Homo Sapien hybrid, originating from several subspecies of Homo Sapien. Every population on Earth except for sub Saharan pygmies also has at least a dash of Neanderthal too. This is the result of sexual and natural selection. We have experienced several bottlenecks in our evolution and apparently the dominant subspecies of Homo Sapien likes chins and small brow ridges. They chose accordingly while assimilating the world.
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