Neanderthals back in the headlines as new studies spike debate on their hunting skills, diet, and extinction timing. Homo neanderthalensis, archaic humans in Eurasia until ~40k years ago.
New genetic research published in Science reveals prehistoric mating favored male Neanderthals and female modern humans. This conclusion is drawn from patterns of Neanderthal DNA in modern human genomes, particularly the scarcity of Neanderthal DNA on the human X chromosome. The findings shed light on ancient human-Neanderthal interactions dating back roughly 250,000 years.