The genomes of archaic hominins have been sequenced and compared with that of modern humans. However, most archaic individuals with high-quality sequences available have been female. Petr et al. performed targeted sequencing of the paternally inherited Y chromosomes from three Neanderthals and two Denisovans (see the Perspective by Schierup). Comparisons with available archaic and diverse modern human Y chromosomes indicated that, similar to the maternally inherited mitochondria, the human and Neanderthal Y chromosomes were more closely related to each other compared with the Denisovan Y chromosome. This result supports the conclusion that interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals and selection replaced the more ancient Denisovian-like Y chromosome and mitochondria in Neanderthals. 古人类的基因组已被测序，并与现代人的基因组进行了比较。然而，大多数拥有高质量序列的古人类都是女性。Petr 等人对三个尼安德特人和两个丹尼索瓦人的父系遗传 Y 染色体进行了有针对性的测序（见 Schierup 的观点）。与现有的古人类和不同的现代人类 Y 染色体比较表明，与母系遗传的线粒体类似，与丹尼索瓦人的 Y 染色体相比，人类和尼安德特人的 Y 染色体之间的亲缘关系更为密切。这一结果支持这样的结论，即早期人类与尼安德特人之间的杂交和选择取代了尼安德特人中更古老的类似丹尼索瓦人的 Y 染色体和线粒体。