Anatomically, the modern human species we know today emerged on the African continent 300,000 years ago. It evolved from Homo heidelbergensis or a similar species, and humans who migrated out of Africa gradually replaced or interbred with local archaic human populations.
The remains of a young girl who lived right during this interbreeding shocked scientists. After the discovery, scientists partially proved a long-standing theory, thanks to deep learning algorithms that examine ancient and modern human genetic code.
A never-before-discovered intermediate ancestor of man has been discovered
No one knew who these young girl’s remains belonged to, but there was a definite difference. These remains belonged to a young girl from more than 50,000 years ago and appeared to be a ‘hybrid’ ancestor of modern humans that scientists had never seen before. Scientists have also found evidence that the person to whom these remains belonged was not alone.
In the study, which began in 2019, scientists investigated the species that, with the help of an artificial intelligence, intermingled during the great migration of modern humans out of Africa and into Eurasia. Thanks to artificial intelligence comparing the genes in the remains with the genes of modern humans, it was discovered that the person belonging to the 50,000-year-old remains was an intermediate human ancestor that emerged during this interbreeding.
Until now, it was thought that Neanderthals and Denisovans were the interrelated species in this migration. However, in this study, it was revealed that a third ancient species lived in Eurasian DNA a long time ago, thanks to deep learning algorithms.
Using a statistical technique called Bayesian inference, the researchers found evidence of what they call “backcrossing,” in other words, a “ghost” archaic population in which modern humans interbred during the African migration.
But according to scientists, the work is just getting started. Applying this kind of AI analysis is a new technique in the field of human lineage, and the known fossil evidence we’re dealing with can be extremely scant. On the other hand, according to the research, what the team found not only explains a long-forgotten process of introversion, but also provides insight into who we are today.
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