• Omega_Man@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Is there any way to tell if certain gender-pairs were more common in interspecies mating between sapiens and neanderthals? For example, are we able to tell if the male partner was more or less likely to be sapien or neanderthal?

    • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I think that might be possible with mitochondrial dna (it always comes from the mother), but I only found 1 speculative source that draws a conclusion: “Nobody today has mitochondrial DNA like that in Neanderthals and, since it’s passed only maternally, this implies that interbreeding was more often between their men and our women.” https://aeon.co/essays/what-do-we-know-about-the-lives-of-neanderthal-women

      It’s an essay, not a research paper, I wouldn’t bet any money on this conclusion being correct.