Study Reveals Modern Humans Descended from Two Divergent Ancestral Populations

New research shows that a genetic mixing event 300,000 years ago contributed significantly to modern human DNA, reshaping our understanding of human evolution.

Modern humans inherited 80% of their genetic material from one ancestral population and 20% from another, which had diverged 1.5 million years ago and reconnected 300,000 years ago.
This genetic mixing event predates interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans by 250,000 years and contributed 10 times more DNA to modern humans.
Researchers used modern human DNA from the 1000 Genomes Project and a computational algorithm called cobraa to model ancient population dynamics.
One ancestral population experienced a severe bottleneck, shrinking to a small size before recovering over a million years, and later became the source of Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages.
The findings challenge the traditional single-lineage model of human evolution and suggest interbreeding played a critical role in species development across the animal kingdom.