> for example the 2026 discovery that interbreeding was predominantly between Neanderthal males and human females, and not between Neanderthal females and human males.

I thought this was an interesting detail in the article, and trying to find out more about a possible reason for this discrepancy, I found a recent paper concluding that this was possibly due to mate preference [1]. Neanderthal dudes were smoking hot!

[1]: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aea6774

▲

seba_dos1 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Isn't it believed to be (at least partially) caused by maternofetal Rh incompatibility that was likely to happen with Neanderthal mother and human father?

▲

453yuh46 2 hours ago | parent [-]

There is a paper that was describing, that Neanderthals had their mtdna replaced by something mtdna that was more related to Homo Sapiens starting about 400 000 years ago and fully replaced? 200 000 years ago, so matrilineally Neanderthals were close to Homo Sapiens already. And that question should have not been raised nowadays at all. Besides we also have already found remains of 50% and 25% hybrids, so doesn't seem to be a problem of interbreeding with other humans - just like our ancestors had not issues interbreed with Denisovans as well, with whom we had slightly larger DNA differences than with Neanderthals.

Bigger issue seems to be that Neanderthal inbreeding between themselves as they were living without access to other pools of dna of humans and that most probably was a cause why they did not bounce back.

	▲	seba_dos1 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Rh incompatibility results in limited ability to crossbreed, not complete inability. It usually doesn't affect the first child, only subsequent ones.

▲

jgilias 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Lol. Bride kidnapping is still a thing. In my culture it’s not a thing anymore, but it’s still being acted out as part of wedding customs. There’s also a separate word for “people who go after the people who stole the girl”.

I find it more likely the admixture is from girls our ancestors went to take back who were already pregnant.