Ghostbusters do not only exist in fantasy literature. Two geneticists from the University of Los Angeles in California (UCLA) have just discovered in the DNA of contemporary populations, the reminiscences of a human species that disappeared almost 40,000 years ago ( Sciences Advances of February 12).
Read also: Who were the Romans really? What Genetics Tells Us
At that time, the planet was still populated by several groups of hominins, the ancestors of men and their close cousins. Different "humanities", some of which are known by their archaeological remains. This is the case of Neanderthals, for example, who populated Europe before the arrival of our “Homo sapiens” ancestors. Some of these groups could still be close enough to reproduce together. Exchanges which, tens of thousands of years later, have left traces in our genomes.
If [the scientists] manage to isolate certain unknown genetic sequences, it is that an unlisted human group may have crossed the path of our ancestorsTo find them, we must dive into our DNA. “We compare the DNA of fossils with that of modern populations , explains Frédéric Austerlitz,
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