Hidden ancestors revealed in the human genome: ghost lineage and a super-archaic contributor
UC Berkeley researchers identified DNA segments in modern humans that come from two previously unknown ancestral lineages: a 'ghost' lineage that interbred in Africa more than 50,000 years ago and now accounts for about 1% of everyone’s genome, and a 'super-archaic' lineage that split from other hominins around 1.8 million years ago and later mixed with Denisovans in Eurasia, leaving traces in modern DNA. The findings suggest human evolution involved repeated admixture with multiple unknown groups, not just Neanderthals and Denisovans.