Neanderthal women ‘left home to be with their partners while men stayed put’

An artist’s impression of a Neanderthal father and his daughter (Tom Bjorklund/Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)

Neanderthal women, who lived in the Siberian mountains around 54,000 years ago, left their homes to join their partners in other communities while the men stayed local, research suggests.

DNA analysis suggests around 60% or more females who lived in the Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Caves in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, Russia, moved to be with their mates, thus creating a connection between these small localities.