Not just Neanderthals: Ghost lineage in Africa left its mark on our DNA
Researchers have identified evidence of a previously unknown 'ghost lineage' of ancient humans that interbred with our ancestors while they were still in Africa. This discovery adds a new layer to the complex history of human evolution beyond the well-known Neanderthal and Denisovan contributions.
Why it matters
Understanding these ancestral lineages helps scientists map the genetic history of modern humans and explains the diversity found in our DNA.
introgressive Not just Neanderthals: Ghost lineage in Africa left its mark on our DNA Some group with no modern descendants contributed a lot to our genomes.
0 Credit: BSIP Credit: BSIP Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav When the history of our ancestry is written, the fact that we’ve interbred with some of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, will have a central role. And it will be tempting to write it as a very tidy story: Once we got genomes from these other groups, it was possible to identify the sequences in our genomes that we shared with them.
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