@Denton_Parsells,
I agree with the line of thinking as @pevaquark concerning the lack of definitive statements about early hominins in Scripture:
I personally find it appalling to hear people assert x, y or z about Neanderthals or Denisovans and their spiritual status (e.g. they are just “brute beasts” according to some Christian organizations) - or others just shove them into a very tiny box that makes no scientific sense where they all descended from Noah’s 3 sons or something and then went extinct in a very short time frame.
The evidence we have from genetics shows us that there were relationships that early humans had with Neanderthals and Denisovans. I’m not aware of the nature of these relationships, but clearly children happened, being fruitful and multiplying happened, and many people carry a fraction of their genes.https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/humans-mated-neandertals-much-earlier-and-more-frequently-thought With this is the fact that they could viably breed with each other, suggesting the same species. However, some view this ability to interbreed as possible between different species, particularly within family classifications (Are Neanderthals the same species as us? | Natural History Museum).
Study of Neanderthals has also shown that they exhibited characteristic associated to modern views of the *Imago Dei. *Formed in the Image of God: The Theological Status of Neanderthals | OKH Journal: Anthropological Ethnography and Analysis Through the Eyes of Christian Faith
These have been reconciled with YEC organizations (Neanderthal Man: Like Other Humans | Answers in Genesis) to signify the same species, yet what is not considered here are the differences between Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, or the homo family tree (see graph here Are Neanderthals the same species as us? | Natural History Museum).
It’s likely not singular to genetics for sin or likewise Imago Dei to be passed on, although all creation is affected by sin and impacted by the Imago Dei. Thanks for a very good discussion point 