Found evidence of the existence of an unknown species of ancient people

Scientists have found evidence of existencethe mysterious "ghost population" - ancient people who lived in Africa about half a million years ago. Traces of an unknown ancestor appeared when researchers analyzed genomes from West African populations and found that up to a fifth of their DNA apparently came from missing relatives. Geneticists suspect that the ancestors of modern West Africans interbred with undetected archaic people tens of thousands of years ago, just as the ancient Europeans once mixed their genes with Neanderthals. The results are published in the journal Science Advances.

Perhaps our knowledge of the evolution of Homo sapiens is much less than what we are used to

We are the only surviving members of the Homo clan

Unlike today, our planetIt was once home to many related species or subspecies of humans. As a result, modern Europeans are carriers of a small number of Neanderthal genes, while indigenous Australians, Polynesians, and Melanesians inherited genes from Denisovans, another group of ancient people. Previous studies hinted that other ancient people wandered around Africa, it was impossible to talk about it with confidence, since neither fossils nor DNA were found.

Lead author tells The Guardianresearch by Sriram Shankararaman from the University of California, almost all the genes of the West Africans who participated in the study inherited from this unknown archaic population.

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Once upon a time, different types of ancient people lived on our planet.

In the course of the study, scientists obtained the genome of fourWest African populations also used statistical methods to find out if the influx of genes from crosses could take place in the distant past. The analysis showed that a similar cross was observed in each case. Further scientists were able to establish DNA sequences that are most likely inherited from an ancient relative. Comparing the results with the genes of Neanderthals and Denisovans, the researchers concluded that the DNA should have come from a ghost population.

Moreover, the authors note that the populationghosts had a significant impact on the genome of modern people. The results obtained are far from final, but, according to the best estimates of scientists, the ghost population broke away from the ancestors of Neanderthals and modern people somewhere between 360,000 and 1 million years ago.

The authors of the study hope that in the future they will be able to detect the remains of a ghost population.

However, what kind of population was this for scientists notit is known. Moreover, the authors do not exclude the possibility that there are other explanations for the results. The discovery is noteworthy in that we can learn more about human ancestors than we expected. Scientists believe that the results will subsequently reveal the fossil archaeological remains of a ghost population.