Researchers identify two ‘ghost’ ancestral lineages in human DNA

Researchers have identified traces of two previously unknown ‘ghost’ ancestral lineages within modern human DNA. Using a new method to reconstruct genealogies by working backward from the genomes of living people, scientists were able to uncover evolutionary branches that lack a presence in the fossil record.

One identified lineage appears to have interbred directly with Homo sapiens in Africa more than 50,000 years ago. The second lineage is an even older group that contributed DNA to humans indirectly through Denisovans. The study, published in the journal Science, provides a way to map how different pieces of DNA were passed down, offering new insights into the human family tree that were previously impossible to access due to the lack of prehistoric DNA from these specific groups.