https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2019/...thinks-so/
EXCERPT: . . . All non-Africans today have a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA, while Denisovan DNA is particularly common in Asian and Oceanian populations. [...] The idea of a “ghost population” — an unknown species inferred to exist through statistical techniques — had been postulated to account for archaic sections of the human genome that do not match Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA.
This third archaic species was identified using “a demographic model based on deep learning in an Approximate Bayesian Computation framework,” the researchers wrote in their article published in Nature Communications last month. “We have an overwhelming support for the existence of a third extinct branch of the Neanderthal-Denisovan clade,” they said.
The species appears to be responsible for a third unique introgression (the introduction of genes from one species to another via crossbreeding) into the genome of anatomically modern humans, with the first two introgressions resulting from modern humans mating with Neanderthals and Denisovans. The third extinct species is likely a hybrid or close relative of Neanderthals and Denisovans that crossbred with “Out of Africa” modern humans in Asia. (MORE)
EXCERPT: . . . All non-Africans today have a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA, while Denisovan DNA is particularly common in Asian and Oceanian populations. [...] The idea of a “ghost population” — an unknown species inferred to exist through statistical techniques — had been postulated to account for archaic sections of the human genome that do not match Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA.
This third archaic species was identified using “a demographic model based on deep learning in an Approximate Bayesian Computation framework,” the researchers wrote in their article published in Nature Communications last month. “We have an overwhelming support for the existence of a third extinct branch of the Neanderthal-Denisovan clade,” they said.
The species appears to be responsible for a third unique introgression (the introduction of genes from one species to another via crossbreeding) into the genome of anatomically modern humans, with the first two introgressions resulting from modern humans mating with Neanderthals and Denisovans. The third extinct species is likely a hybrid or close relative of Neanderthals and Denisovans that crossbred with “Out of Africa” modern humans in Asia. (MORE)