The African genome may hold the secrets to a previously unknown species of ancient hominid

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The African genome may hold the secrets to a previously unknown species of ancient hominid

We know that ancient Europeans interbred a bit with Neanderthals and ancient Asians interbred with similar now-extinct hominids at times, but what no one expected when scientists started sequencing the genes of tribal African peoples was to see evidence of another ancient hominid species that may have interbred with ancient Africans.

The researchers’ investigation has led to a number of insightful observations. Results from whole-genome sequencing suggest, for example, that these hunter-gatherer populations have likely responded to distinct, region-specific environmental factors by evolving in ways that are markedly different from agricultural and pastoral populations. Analysis of Pygmy DNA sequences also revealed a collection of genes that likely underlies the population’s short stature. (Male Pygmies are typically less than five feet tall; Dr. Tishkoff is pictured here with women from the Western Pygmies of Cameroon.)

Even more intriguing, however, was the discovery of over 13-million genetic variants, that is: points in the genome where a single nucleotide differed from the human genome reference sequence. At the time of their discovery, a staggering 5-million of these variants were new to science.

“It was awe-inspiring to find millions of new variants that we never knew existed in our species,” said Lachance in a statement. “It’s humbling but invigorating to think about how to make sense of all this diversity.”