Neanderthal dad, human mum: study reveals ancient procreation pattern

"The analysis suggests that female Homo sapiens and male Neanderthals mated more often than did male H. sapiens and female Neanderthals. The findings show how behaviour can shape human evolution, says study co-author Alexander Platt, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia."

"Modern humans can have up to 4% Neanderthal DNA. But this genetic material is not distributed equally. Some parts of the H. sapiens genome, including most of the X chromosome, lack any Neanderthal ancestry. These regions are known as 'Neanderthal deserts'."

"The second holds that the Neanderthal versions of certain genes were disadvantageous to modern humans but worked perfectly well for Neanderthals, and vice versa. If this were the case, then Neanderthals with some human ancestry would be expected to have their own DNA deserts devoid of human ancestry."

Analysis of genetic material from three female Neanderthal specimens reveals that female Homo sapiens and male Neanderthals interbred more frequently than male H. sapiens and female Neanderthals. This finding demonstrates how behavioral preferences influenced human evolution. Modern humans carry up to 4% Neanderthal DNA, but this genetic material distributes unevenly across the genome. Certain regions, particularly the X chromosome, contain no Neanderthal ancestry and are called 'Neanderthal deserts.' Two theories explain these deserts: either Neanderthal variants were disadvantageous and purged from populations, or specific genes functioned poorly in one species but well in the other. Researchers examined Neanderthal genomes directly rather than only modern human genomes to test these hypotheses.

Read at Nature