I decided to index the posts and the papers that I cited in them, to have in one single post, links to all of them. Over the years I posted about Neanderthal, Denisovan, Ghost, Super-Archaics, and unknown archaics introgressing (or not) with Modern Humans or with the ancestors of our lineage at different times (before the split with Neanderthals and Denisovans, or after that split), and also with humans injecting alleles into Neanderthals! Very confusing, and sometimes contradictory.
Our lewd ancestors and their dallies
What is the basis of these events? Politely termed admixture and introgression, the only way our ancestors could have exchanged genes is through sexual intercourse. They were sexually aggressive.
Research by Emma Nelson, Campbell Rolian, Lisa Cashmore, Susanne Shultz, 2010 (Digit ratios predict polygyny in early apes, Ardipithecus, Neanderthals and early modern humans but not in Australopithecus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2010; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1740) reported that the finger bones of fossil ancestors (bones that are affected by sex hormones in the womb), can predict their levels of promiscuity and competitiveness (polygynous hominins! who had more than one mate). This study found that Ardipithecus ramidus, Neanderthals, and early anatomically modern human (like Qafzeh 9) were more polygynous than modern humans, while Australopiths had a lower polygyny. Strong sex drives that led to many mating events.
Below I list my posts with the corresponding citations, and the outline of the research in them.
- May 2018: Archaic hominins admixed with Pygmies in Africa, citing: Psing Hsun Shieh et al, 2016. Summary: at least one introgression of archaics into pygmies ~9 kya.
- May 2018: More on archaic introgression into H. sapiens in Africa: the source of African's genetic diversity, citing: Hammer et al., 2011. Summary: modern Africans' DNA has a ~2% introgression that took place ~35 kya, from an archaic that split from our lineage 700 kya.ed DNA, ) that introgressed ~35 kya from an archaic population that split from the ancestors of anatomically modern humans ~700 kya
- May 2019: Archaic Ghost population admixed with Modern Humans in Africa, citing: Lorente-Galdos et al, 2019. Summary: a divergent ghost archaic population that split from the ancestors of modern humans 528 kya introgressed into Africans at the following frequencies:~ 4.0% in Khoisan, ~ 4.3% in Mbuti Pygmies, and ~ 5.8% in Mandenka.
- September 2019: Super Archaic Hominin admixture with Denisovans, Neanderthals and Africans, citing: Hubisz, Williams, and Siepel, 2019. Summary: (i) 1% of Denisovan genes introgressed from super-archaic hominin that diverged from Human lineage 1 million years ago (MYA). (ii) 0.75% of Altai Neanderthal, and 0.70% of Vindija Neanderthal introgressed from super-archaic. (iii) Some of it passed from Denisovans to Humans. (iv) Detected super-archaic admix in Africans. (v) 3% of Neanderthal genes are an introgression from Anatomically Modern Humans ~200-300 kya.
- June 2019: Archaic humans admixed with modern humans in Africa, citing: S. Langley, Miga, Karpen, C. Langley, 2018. Summary:a distinct, old introgressed archaic lineage (~1.1 MYA) consistent with recent admixture with an extinct archaic in Africa.
- October 2025: Neanderthals and Denisovans in India?, citing: Kerdoncuff, Laurits Skov, Nick Patterson, et. al., 2024. Summary: Beside their introgressed Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry, 0.37 to 0.48% of Indian ancestry is from another unknown archaic.
- October 2025: Archaic admixture in humans that is neither Denisovan or Neanderthal, citing: Tucci et al., 2018, Mondal, Bertranpetit & Lao, 2019. Summary: The first paper did not find any unknown archaic introgression in SE Asian pygmies, the second one did: a third introgression in all Asian and Oceaninans from an extinct population of the Neanderthal-Denisovan clade or a one that diverged early from Denisovans. First Neanderthals admixed with humans 1.3% frequency 69 kya, then Denisovans introgressed in Oceanians 1.6% frequency, 43 kya, and the unknwon archaic added 2.6% 51 kya. The archacic dates back to 304 kya. Teixeira and Cooper, 2019. Also support a third introgression with an extinct hominin (not Neanderthal or Denisovan), and finally Yuan et al., 2021 suggest that the most recent, of two, Out of Africa events may have mated with undiscovered archaics in South Asia or that ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans admixed with superarchaics.
- February 2026: On the Diversity of Africans, citing: Durvasula and Sankararaman, 2020. Summary: introgression into four West African populations, with frequencies of 2 to 19% from an archaic population that diverged before the split of Neanderthals and modern humans. It took plase 43 kya (95% HPD: 6 - 124 kya).
Continues below, after the picture with Hollywood's fantasy about love 1 million years ago (the actors look too tanned and clean don't they?).
- February 2026: Diversity in Africa. Some explanations on why it is so diverse, citing: Skoglund et al., 2017, Jakobsson et al., 2025 and Padilla-Iglesias et al., 2025. Summary: deep stratification in Africa may come from admixture with an unknown archaic African group predating the divergence of Humans from Neandertals and Denisovans. Western Africans may have introgressed with archaics.
- February 2026: Did Humans admix with Neanderthals? Paper in Nature says NO, citing: Tournebize and Chikhi, 2025. Summary: There was no admixture between humans and Neanderthals, it is an artifact of mistaken models.
- April 2026: Human Ancestors Interbred with Two Distinct Populations of Superarchaics, citing: Rogers, Islam, Brand, and Webster, (2026). Summary: at least two distinct superarchaic populations admixed with us: one into archaic Eurasian populations (Denisovans and Neanderthal-Denisovan ancestors), an superarchaic that diverged earlier from the human lineage than did the second superarchaic, that admixed within Africa, contributing DNA to early modern humans.
- April 2026: A New March 2026: Paper on Archaic introgressions in Humans, citing: Zhang, Biddanda, Johnson, O’Dushlaine, Moorja, (2026). Summary: two introgressions with super-archaics. (i) inside of Africa with a ghost population that diverged from ours over 500 kya it is found in all humans, Africans and non-Africans. (ii) Superarchaic admixture at 0.3% frequency in Oceanians. This population diverged 1.77 Mya from humans. (iii) All non-Africans carry admixture with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
- April 2026: Another Paper on Introgressions (April 2026), citing: Nicholas W Collier, Simon Gravel, Aaron P Ragsdale. (2026). Summary: Through statistical models and genetic analysis of the autosomal DNA, the authors suggest a population structure and admixture, and population sizes for modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and super-archaics that mix to and fro over the past million years
Last Updated on April 18, 2026
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
No comments:
Post a Comment