Ancient humans 'had sex with now extinct sub-species'

Ancestors of modern humans got intimate with a now extinct lineage of humanity before they migrated out of Africa, a new research has found.

Direct studies of ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones suggest interbreeding did occur, some time after Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa between 55,000 and 60,000 years ago.

A team led by Michael Hammer, an associate professor and research scientist with the UA’s Arizona Research Labs, has provided evidence that anatomically modern humans were not so unique that they remained separate.

“We found evidence for hybridization between modern humans and archaic forms in Africa. It looks like our lineage has always exchanged genes with their more morphologically diverged neighbors,” said Hammer.

“Anatomically modern humans were not so unique that they remained separate,” he added. “They have always exchanged genes with their more morphologically diverged neighbours. This is quite common in nature, and it turns out we’re not so unusual after all.”

According to Hammer, the first signs of anatomically modern features appeared about 200,000 years ago.

Examples of now-extinct humans who may have contributed to the modern gene pool include the “upright walking man”, Homo erectus, and “tool-using man”, Homo habilis.

“We are talking about something that happened between 20,000 and 60,000 years ago—not that long ago in the scheme of things,” Hammer said.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.