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If a human male and a neanderthal female mated and produced female offspring, who then also reproduced, etc., how could you later tell that it was a human femal
by sterkekoffie 7y ago
If a human male and a neanderthal female mated and produced female offspring, who then also reproduced, etc., how could you later tell that it was a human female and a neanderthal male? As far as I can understand, all we can speculate about is the sex of the offspring who reproduced, not the original pairings, correct?
- Bartweiss 7y agoTheoretically mitochondrial DNA (which is maternal-only) could do the trick. In practice I don't think we have the sort of baseline sample it would take to work out which mitochondrial genes are neanderthal-derived. I suppose it might be possible to rebuild that list by looking at high-admixture populations and seeing where their mitochondrial DNA differs, then use that aggregate to compare an individual's mDNA to their DNA and see if it's is "more Neanderthal" (i.e. female line) or "more Sapiens" (i.e. male line)? But realistically, I'm betting the answer is "admixture happened a bunch of times in a row, with different hominid groups in different places, even if there was a gender skew it's a mess that's impossible to discern".
- mirimir 7y ago> Theoretically mitochondrial DNA (which is maternal-only) could do the trick. That is, sperm have just one mitochondrion, and they almost always dump it as part of fertilization. But not always, so there is nonzero male contribution of mitochondrial genes.
- danieltillett 7y agoI answered this in a post just above yours. You look at the X chromosome.