The more we find out about Neanderthals, Denisovans and our ancient Homo sapiens sapiens ancestors, the more complicated the family tree gets. Last year's feature told the story of multiple interbreedings between the three main branches known so far - and since then new genetic data have demonstrated the first traces of Neanderthal heritage in African populations as well as a new "ghost" lineage that mixed with the others but hasn't yet been discovered in its original form. Exciting times, and surely a story to be continued.
Meanwhile, my feature from last year is now in the open archives:
Mingling with Neanderthals
An artist’s impression of ‘Denny’, whose genome revealed her to be the child of a Neanderthal mother and Denisovan father. (Photo: © John Bavaro.)
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