Neanderthal Women Left Home To Be With Their Partners, While Men Didn¡¯t: Study
To come to this conclusion, researchers analysed data from the remains of 11 Neanderthals --seven males and six females, from which eight were adults and five were children and young adolescents -- from Chagyrskya and Okladnikov Caves.
Neanderthal women from the Siberian mountains from 54,000 years ago separated from their homes to join their partners from other communities, while men stayed put in the community they were born in, reveals a new research, reported by Independent.
Tom Bjorklund/Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
DNA analysis reveals that around 60 percent or more females who lived in the Chagyrskya and Okladnikov Caves in the Altai Mountains of Siberian moved to be with their partners, creating a connection of sorts between the small localities.
To come to this conclusion, researchers analysed data from the remains of 11 Neanderthals --seven males and six females, from which eight were adults and five were children and young adolescents -- from Chagyrskya and Okladnikov Caves.
Researchers found that within these communities, the diversity of Y chromosomes (passed down from the male line) was a lot lower than that of the mitochondrial DNA (that passed from mothers).
Based on this, researchers are of the belief that women were more likely to leave their homes than men. In small communities that these Neanderthals belonged from around 60 percent of females were likely to have migrated to be with their partners.
They also found that some Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were closely related, including a father and his teenage daughter as well as a pair of second-degree relatives -- maybe grandma, aunt or a cousin.
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Another striking discovery, scientists claim, was the fact that there was an extremely low genetic diversity within this Neanderthal community, often seen in endangered species that are on the verge of extinction.
Dr Benjamin Peter, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, who is one of the authors on the study, said: ¡°Our study provides a concrete picture of what a Neandertal community may have looked like. It makes Neandertals seem much more human to me.¡±
Authors however have cautioned that the sample size is quite small and more research is needed to shed some more light on the social lives of these individuals.
