FILE: Reconstructions of a Neanderthal man, left, and woman at the Neanderthal museum in Mettmann, Germany, March 2009 ...

A preference for pairings between male Neanderthals and female Homo sapiens may answer the question of why there are "Neanderthal deserts" in human chromosomes.

Long ago, Neanderthals and modern humans interbred. But among Neanderthals, their modern human blood came mostly from their ...

Perhaps human females found Neanderthal males to be high-status providers. Or perhaps Neanderthal society was “patrilocal” — meaning women moved to join the man’s family — while human society was the ...

Most people of non-African ancestry carry about 2% Neanderthal DNA, and researchers report a mirror image pattern with more human DNA on the Neanderthal X chromosome.

Geneticists have found an interesting pattern in how early humans and Neanderthals interbred—and it wasn't balanced.

When the two species got together tens of thousands of years ago, the hookups may have often involved a male Neanderthal and a female human, according to a new study. The findings, described February ...

Learn how sex-biased interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans explains why Neanderthal DNA is largely missing ...

A 2026 study finds sex-biased interbreeding, not genetic incompatibility, likely explains why Neanderthal DNA is scarce on the human X chromosome.

Genomic analysis shows that interbreeding between female Neanderthals and human males was less common than the opposite ...

The findings may reveal new insights into early human mating preferences ...

New research reveals that ancient interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals shaped our modern human DNA - especially on the X chromosome.