Scientists have found traces of DNA that they say is evidence that prehistoric humans procreated with an Unknown hominin group in West Africa.
They analyzed genetic material from hundreds of people from Nigeria and Sierra Leone and found signals of what they call "ghost" DNA from an unknown ancestor.
Our own species — Homo sapiens — lived alongside other groups that split off from the same genetic family tree at different times.
The scientists think the interbreeding happened about 50,000 years ago, roughly the same time that Neanderthals were breeding with modern humans elsewhere in the world.
Sharon Browning , a biostatistics professor at the University of Washington who has studied the mixing of Denisovans and humans, says "the scenario that they are discovering here is one that seems realistic."
"I think as we get the genome sequences from different parts of the world at different points in time, there is always the possibility that we might discover these as-yet-unidentified ghost populations," Sankararaman says.
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- Africa: Early Humans in Africa May Have Interbred With a Mysterious, Extinct Species - New ResearchAllAfrica.com
- Ghost DNA Hints at Africa's Missing Ancient HumansThe New York Times
- Missing Link? Geneticists Find Evidence of Unknown 'Ghost Archaic' Human SpeciesSputnik International
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- Genetic Traces of Mysterious Human Lineage Detected in People Living in West AfricaInside Science News Service
- Remnants of Extinct Hominin Species Found in West African GenomesThe Scientist
