THE ERASED FATHERS

There’s a pattern in our species that shows up again and again, and it isn’t pretty. It’s not about peace, fairness, or coexisting. It’s about survival, dominance, and the raw, deep instinct to pass on your genes, no matter the cost.

Roughly 50,000 years ago, when modern humans met Neanderthals in Eurasia, the two species interbred. We know this from DNA evidence. Most people today outside of Africa still carry 1–2% Neanderthal genes. But here’s the twist: there’s no Neanderthal Y-chromosome in us. None. Zero. And no Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA, either.

What does that mean? It means Neanderthal males didn’t make it into the future. Their Y-chromosome line died out. Their mtDNA - passed down from mothers - also disappeared. The only Neanderthal DNA we carry is the leftover mix from some early hybrid offspring, mostly from Neanderthal females mating with human males. The rest were likely wiped out or through violence, competition, or incompatibility.

Sound familiar?

Fast-forward 45,000 years to the Yamnaya steppe people moving into Europe. What happened? Again, the same pattern: local European males disappeared, genetically speaking. In places like ancient Iberia, 90% of the Y-chromosome lineages were replaced. These invaders, with horses, weapons, and numbers, didn’t just conquer land, they took the women as they were wiping out the men.

Jump ahead to the colonization of the Americas. In Colombia today, most people have European Y-chromosomes but Indigenous or African mitochondrial DNA. That tells a brutal truth: the Spanish came, killed or displaced local men, and had children with the local women. Once again, male-lineages were erased.

This isn’t just war. It’s not diplomacy. It’s not charity. It’s raw biology, powered by something buried deep inside many species. The male drive to dominate, survive, and reproduce has shaped history over and over again, from Neanderthals to the steppes to Europe to Bogotá.

We can tell ourselves stories about civility and evolution, but the genes don’t lie. The winners rewrote the human map, and they did it with violence, strategy, and sex.

Nice stories don’t leave fossils. But genes do.

Thanks for reading. Abrazos.

Diego Rojas