Thursday, February 13, 2020

Neanderthals, Denisovans, and...

...and at least one more human species that left markers in our DNA. Or at least in the DNA of people from west Africa.

All we know about this other species is...well...that they mated with Homo sapiens in west Africa. We haven't discovered them from fossils or artifacts, but through their grandchildren.

And some of the individuals sequenced have as much as 19% of this DNA...indicating some very extensive interbreeding.

Or that there was more than one other species people were mating with. Or that the genes had a high survival value.

It's becoming more and more clear that modern humans are the braided descendants of multiple people, keeping the genes which were useful for survival. And that it shouldn't matter.

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