+- WildFact (https://wildfact.com/forum)
+-- Forum: Information Section (https://wildfact.com/forum/forum-information-section)
+--- Forum: Questions (https://wildfact.com/forum/forum-questions)
+--- Thread: Were our ancestors hermaphrodites? (/topic-were-our-ancestors-hermaphrodites)
Were our ancestors hermaphrodites? - parvez - 05-09-2021
I came across some articles which say Neanderthals and their predecessors had both x and Y chromosomes. I feel in one way they may be hermaphrodites. Modern humans and Neanderthals had 99.7% similarities. What distinguishes them is presence of both x and Y chromosome and a bigger brain in Neanderthals. Modern Humans had only either of these two. Sexual dimorphism may have started only after the first human was created. It may be only the latest phenomenon IMO. What you say guys?
RE: Were our ancestors hermaphrodites? - LandSeaLion - 05-09-2021
No, Neanderthals were not hermaphroditic. Males had XY and females had XX, like most mammals. They interbred with modern humans quite a bit, to the point that the Neanderthal Y chromosome was pretty much replaced by the Homo sapiens Y chromosome:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-human-y-chromosomes-replaced-those-neanderthals-quiet-genetic-takeover-180975944/