Interestingly, the remains of several specimens of Neanderthal man have yielded mitochondrial DNA in varying degrees of quality from the minute to extremely good. One particular specimen is so good that it has been speculated that the entire DNA sequence might be mapped.

Also interestingly, even though the number of specimens is small, the information indicates that Neanderthal man didn't contribute to the DNA of modern man. As such, Neanderthal man was probably a separate species. The proof is overwhelming, but not yet compelling because there should be many more specimens evaluated first, and it might be that the paternal DNA was a contributor to modern man DNA, and that those contributions have been erased, excluded, or significantly mutated over time.