The Dwarkesh Reference
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Claim✓ Verified

Neanderthal mtDNA and Y chromosome share a common ancestor with modern humans only ~300-450k years ago, far more recent than the ~700-800k-year nuclear split, implying gene flow replaced both.

Who
David Reich
Topic
Neanderthal genetics
Verification note
Established in the literature (Posth et al. 2017 for mtDNA; Petr et al. 2020 for Y).