Ancient DNA, or aDNA, is one of the most powerful tools for answering questions about our evolutionary past. A new study this year looked at the genomes of modern Africans to try to gain clues about the origins of our species, Homo sapiens. While genetic and fossil evidence indicates that our species’ origin was in Africa, exactly how early ancient human populations interacted and contributed to living populations is less clear. This research team used DNA to work backwards in time and studied 289 modern human genomes from across Africa, including some from Great Britain as an outgroup, as well as a Croatian Neanderthal genome as an additional outgroup. They used computer modeling to suggest that our species arose from at least two African populations that interacted and interbred with each other. Fossils from these populations would likely be physically and genetically similar. This study indicates that our species did not arise from a single geographically isolated origin population in Africa.

These findings were presented in the journal Nature on May 17th, 2023, by Aaron P. Ragsdale and colleagues.