Ella Al-Shamahi: β20% of our DNA comes from a ghost lineage. This...
Interstellar@InterstellarUAP
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Aug 13, 2026
~1 min read
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Ella Al-Shamahi: β20% of our DNA comes from a ghost lineage. This paper is so explosive right now that a lot of us donβt know what to do with it. And this would be an unknown species?β. π±
The Paleoanthropologist said "We are all hybrids" π½
A new genetic model suggests modern humans carry roughly 20% ancestry from a deeply divergent βghostβ lineage that split from our ancestors around 1.5 million years ago, far earlier than Neanderthals. Around 300,000 years ago these two populations apparently came back together, with the ghost group contributing that substantial share of our genome.
Unlike Neanderthal DNA (typically under 5%), this signal comes from a population we have never sequenced and for which we have no confirmed fossils. The finding is still early but originates from major researchers and challenges the simpler picture of human origins.
If true, a large portion of what makes us human traces to an unknown archaic group that vanished as a distinct population yet lives on in every one of us.
The Paleoanthropologist said "We are all hybrids" π½
A new genetic model suggests modern humans carry roughly 20% ancestry from a deeply divergent βghostβ lineage that split from our ancestors around 1.5 million years ago, far earlier than Neanderthals. Around 300,000 years ago these two populations apparently came back together, with the ghost group contributing that substantial share of our genome.
Unlike Neanderthal DNA (typically under 5%), this signal comes from a population we have never sequenced and for which we have no confirmed fossils. The finding is still early but originates from major researchers and challenges the simpler picture of human origins.
If true, a large portion of what makes us human traces to an unknown archaic group that vanished as a distinct population yet lives on in every one of us.
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Full Video youtu.be/RPY02wfglJY