\n<\/p>\n
February 26, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sex between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans tended to follow a specific pattern<\/p>\n Interbreeding between Neandertals and ancient anatomically modern humans primarily occurred between male Neandertals and female humans, a new study suggests<\/p>\n By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n A Neandertal man at a human evolution exhibit at the Natural History Museum in London.<\/p>\n Mike Kemp\/In Pictures via Getty Images<\/p>\n Most people today have a little Neandertal DNA sprinkled through their genome. These genomic signals are the telltale signs that overlapping populations of ancient anatomically modern humans and Neandertals had sex. Exactly what these interactions looked like is a mystery, but a new study suggests that when our species and Neandertals did interbreed, it was primarily between male Neandertals and anatomically modern female humans.<\/p>\n There\u2019s less Neandertal DNA on humans\u2019 X chromosome than there is on most other chromosomes today. There were other theories as to why that might be, including the possibility that there was some evolutionary disadvantage to the Neandertal X chromosome in humans.<\/p>\n \u201cOur study allowed us to distinguish between these possibilities,\u201d says Sarah Tishkoff, a professor of genetics and biology at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-author on the study.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The researchers compared ancient Neandertal DNA with that of people living in Africa today who have little or no Neandertal ancestry.<\/p>\n If mixing anatomically modern human and Neandertal DNA was disadvantageous, the scientists theorized, Neandertal genomes would show large gaps devoid of human DNA similar to the lack of Neandertal DNA on the X chromosomes of today\u2019s H. sapiens, explains Alexander Platt, a senior research scientist at University of Pennsylvania and the study\u2019s lead author. \u201cBut that wasn\u2019t what we found,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Instead there was much more anatomically modern human ancestry present on Neandertal X chromosomes than the researchers had expected, including on regions that had nothing to do with fitness. This suggested that the conspicuous absence of Neandertal DNA in parts of the genomes of humans today is likely a result of a strong sex bias in mating long ago.<\/p>\n The research was published on Thursday in the journal Science.<\/p>\n Scientists already had an inkling that this might be the case, Tishkoff explains. But it\u2019s unclear why male Neandertals might selectively mate with anatomically modern female humans, or vice versa. \u201cOne can only speculate!\u201d Tishkoff says.<\/p>\n A major limitation of the study is that the team didn\u2019t have a ton of Neandertal DNA to work with\u2014there is only a handful of high-quality Neandertal genomes. And these genomes provide just a snapshot of what sex between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans may have looked like at a point in time.<\/p>\n As anthropologists work to uncover more Neandertal DNA in the fossil record, the anatomically modern human\u2013Neandertal genetic picture will get clearer, Platt says.<\/p>\n In more of a philosophical sense, the study shows the value of looking outside of human DNA to understand our own ancestry, Platt says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don’t just have to look in our own gene pool to find what happens to Neandertal alleles when they came into our population,\u201d he says. By looking at the other half of these interactions, at Neandertals, \u201cyou get a much richer picture.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 26, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Sex between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans tended to follow a specific pattern Interbreeding between Neandertals and ancient anatomically modern humans primarily occurred between male Neandertals and female humans, a new study suggests By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron A Neandertal man<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[23375,5966,3698,23376,5188,4129,21875],"class_list":{"0":"post-45357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-anatomically","9":"tag-female","10":"tag-humans","11":"tag-interbred","12":"tag-male","13":"tag-modern","14":"tag-neandertals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n