What are ghost lineages, remnants of the past that still exist in our DNA today?
Live Science • • technology
Key Points:
- "Ghost lineages" refer to extinct populations that left no fossils but whose genetic traces persist in the genomes of living species, revealing previously unknown biodiversity.
- Studies of ancient DNA from extinct ice age animals like mammoths and yaks have uncovered ghost lineages, showing that genetic diversity was higher in the past, especially during the last ice age.
- In human evolution, ghost lineages have challenged the traditional linear model, revealing a complex "bushier" evolutionary history with multiple archaic groups interbreeding over millions of years.
- One notable human ghost lineage, called "superarchaic," diverged from modern humans and other ancient hominins around 2 million years ago, known only through genetic evidence due to a