Discover the ancient

American scientists have found that an ancient human species may have crossed with ancestors who live in sub-Saharan Africa today.

Many previous studies have shown that modern ancestors in Asia and Europe crossed with primitive Hominin humans, including Neanderthal and Denisovan. Scientists at the University of Buffalo, USA, found some new evidence that ancient Africans also bred with other Hominin humans early on, according to Phys.org.

An ancient human species may have contributed genetic material to the ancestors of people living in sub-Saharan Africa today.(Photo: University of Buffalo).

According to Omer Gokcumen, associate professor of biology at New York University, Buffalo, the study traces the evolution of an important protein called MUC7 in saliva . When scientists looked at the history of the gene encoding the MUC7 protein, they found a genetic blend in modern Africans living in sub-Saharan Africa. The research results are published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution on July 21.

To conduct the study, the scientists examined the MUC7 gene in 2,500 modern human genomes. Surprisingly, a group of human genomes in sub-Saharan Africa have a MUC7 gene that is far different from other modern humans, due to many similarities to the MUC7 gene of Neanderthal and Denisovan.

"Based on our analysis, the most plausible explanation for this difference is the hybridization of genes (introgression) between ancestors of sub-Saharan Africa and an undiscovered ancient Hominin species. We call it a "ghost" because we haven't found any of their fossils , " Gokcumen said.

Based on the rate of genetic change during evolution, the ancestral estimates team who carry the MUC7 gene variant that lives in sub-Saharan Africa hybridized with an ancient human being 150,000 years ago, after The evolutionary path of the two species is separated from each other 1.5 to 2 million years ago.