Previous studies conducted in the last 10 years have shown that ancient humans interbred with
Until now, these processes were thought to have occurred.after the ancient people left Africa. The basis for this theory was the fact that scientists have so far failed to find traces of the genome of other species in the ancient DNA of the inhabitants of this continent.
A new study refutes this theory. Scientists were able to find a way to identify genes of other types of hominids in the DNA of modern people, for which you do not need to know the “intruder” genome. Until now, researchers have compared the DNA of Homo sapiens from a particular region with the genome of Neanderthals or Denisovans and thus found traces of crosses. The new method allows you to expand the search range by exploring only one genome.
To do this, the researchers trained the model to identifyModern human DNA fragments the genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans and determines the likelihood that a particular piece of DNA came from some other species.
During the analysis of the genome of Homo sapiens, the remainsdiscovered in West Africa, the researchers found differences in the genome of modern continent residents that are best explained by the inclusion of genes of an unknown hominin, whose ancestors may have split off from the Homo family tree before the Neanderthals.
Previously, scientists discovered in amber a bee about 100 million years old. This is the oldest bee known to science.