interbreed

This means Thorin's genome was full of the variants one usually sees with recent inbreeding, a striking feature given other modern humans lived nearby with whom Thorin's Neanderthal community could have interbred.

Duplicated and rearranged genes can account for some of this knottiness, Renner explains, as can interbreeding among these diverging plants.

But whether that interbreeding was critical to H. elevatus separating from H. pardalinus and becoming its own distinct species was a mystery.

They also can weaken wild Chinook fitness by interbreeding or disease, noted study author Misty MacDuffee, salmon biologist with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, a science nonprofit.

These two broods may actually overlap — but probably not interbreed — in a small area near central Illinois, entomologists said.