where did the original Neanderthal emerge if they do not possess African dna?
Neanderthals do not possess African dna?
Are you sure about that?
Just looking on Google, and research from c.2020 (Princeton, no less) says that even african populations have "surprising amounts of neanderthal dna".
After sequencing the Neanderthal genome, scientists discovered all modern humans carry some Neanderthal ancestry in their DNA — including Africans, which was previously not known.
www.princeton.edu
My (presumption, for want of a better word. And I haven't researched it) is that
- hominids evolved in Africa
- some hominids left Africa (for Asia, and Europe)
- Asian population evolved distinct "neanderthal" dna changes
- some of Asian and European hominid populations migrated back together, and some interbreeding took place
- Neanderthals - as a distinct species - died out
- "modern" Europeans and Asians remained
All of the above is more plausible, when you consider that we're talking early hominid world population numbering in the thousands / tens of thousands, so speciation through geographical separation is much, much easier than in a more connected population.