Study Reveals Modern Humans Descended from Two Divergent Ancestral Populations

The history of human origin is even more complex than previously thought. This is what a recent genetic study reveals.

A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans

Understanding the history of admixture events and population size changes leading to modern humans is central to human evolutionary genetics. Here we introduce a coalescence-based hidden Markov model, cobraa, that explicitly represents an ancestral population split and rejoin, and demonstrate its application on simulated and real data across multiple species. Using cobraa, we present evidence for an extended period of structure in the history of…

Breakthrough DNA Analysis Reveals Everyone on Earth Shares Genes from Two Ancient Populations

Cambridge University researchers have uncovered evidence that two distinct populations of ancient hominins, separated for over a million years, before reuniting around 300,000 years ago. It's a missing chapter of evolution that left its mark in the DNA of every human alive today. The post Breakthrough DNA Analysis Reveals Everyone on Earth Shares Genes from Two Ancient Populations appeared first on Study Finds.

Humans Descended From At Least Two Ancestral Populations That Split Then Reconnected

The human story just got even messier.

'Mystery population' of human ancestors gave us 20% of our genes and may have boosted our brain function

A novel genetic model suggests that the ancestors of modern humans came from two distinct populations that split and reconnected during our evolutionary history.

Modern humans may have descended from at least two ancestral populations

Modern humans may have descended from at least two ancestral populations, which diverged 1.5 million years ago and then reconnected 300,000 years ago.