'Mystery population' of human ancestors gave us 20% of our genes and may have boosted our brain function

Live Science ^ | March 18, 2025 | Kristina Killgrove

[MortMan]

I’m surprised the aliens guy has shown up on the thread yet. LOL

[SunkenCiv]

Selections from a bunch of homo keywords, sorted:

• Humans Have Smoked Meat For Almost 2 Million Years, Study Suggests [06/14/2025]
• New Study Proposes How and Why Early Humans First Used Fire [06/09/2025]
• 140,000-Year-Old Bones Reveal Clues About Behavior of Extinct Human Species [06/01/2025]
• Cave discovery reveals previously unknown prehistoric human population in Europe [05/21/2025]
• Native Americans Inherited Lip Shape Gene from Denisovans [01/10/2025]
• Are You a Morning Person? You Might Want to Thank Your Neanderthal Genes [12/14/2023]
• Humans having sex with a now-extinct species 60,000 years ago could be why you suffer from mental health issues, study claims [11/03/2023]
• Two Million Years Ago, This Homo Erectus Lived the High Life [10/22/2023]
• New path for early human migrations through a once-lush Arabia contradicts a single 'out of Africa' origin [10/09/2023]
• A New Human Species? Mystery Surrounds 300,000-Year-Old Fossil [09/21/2023]
• Remains found in China may belong to third human lineage [08/11/2023]
• 300,000-year-old double-pointed stick among oldest record of human-made wooden tools [07/23/2023]
• 300,000-year-old snapshot: Oldest human footprints from Germany found [05/15/2023]
• Early humans: Tooth enamel reveals life histories [01/23/2023]
• Mysterious ancient humans may have given people of Papua New Guinea an immune advantage [12/16/2022]
• Fauci mocked 'ass-backwards' diners for taking off masks at table: book [09/20/2022]
• Fauci is Now Performing Gain-of-Function on the Spanish Flu [08/20/2022]
• Researchers chart advances in ancient DNA technology [07/26/2022]
• 'Homo erectus' from Gongwangling could have been the earliest population in China [06/19/2022]
• Molecular archaeology: What ancient genes tell us about who we are [06/06/2022]
• Tooth of an Ancient Girl Fills Gap in Human Family Tree [05/18/2022]
• Ancient Tooth Once Belonged to The Mysterious Denisovans, Scientists Think [05/17/2022]

[SunkenCiv]

Is such a thing even possible? Yes, it is.

[DeplorablePaul]

Bingo, ancient aliens. There’s no way the Egyptians built the pyramids without technological help.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“The ancestors of all modern humans split off from a mystery population 1.5 million years ago and then reconnected with them 300,000 years ago, a new genetic model suggests.”

That must have been some family feud, like on the scale of the Hatfields and the McCoys! ;)

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Someone put raisins in the coleslaw.

[GingisK]

Sorry for all the parenthesis

They were balanced. You are good to go.

[frogjerk]

[faithhopecharity]

Does the article explain how come so many DNC voters (the real, live ones - not the ones in the cemetery) missed out on inheriting all those brains?

[Maskot]

Yeah, we all blak now

[Bernard]

At publishing time, Leeloo was not available for comment.

[SunkenCiv]

😁

[SunkenCiv]

Heh... that’s a prime example of sci-fi not making a lick of sense — OTOH it’s always fun to watch.

[airborne]

When you have too many people in a tribe, it’s more difficult to feed everyone.

Makes sense for groups to separate to look for better hunting grounds.

[null and void]

Makes sense for groups to separate to look for better hunting grounds.

Or just to get away from all the snoring!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That would TOTALLY do it for me! Blech! ;)

[SunkenCiv]

I dunno about that, those statues of really fat chicks in sites like Catal Huyuk leads me to believe that there were Peg Bundy types in prehistoric times.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

People are all " It is not that bad."

And all the time, they KNOW what they did.

Some things just can't be talked out.

I will add that bringing banana flavored instant pudding with no wafers or bananas when you said you would bring "Banana Puddling" is another such issue. You are on the Paper Products list for life.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep.

‘Hippy Micro-Brew Obsessed Brother In Law?’ You bring the beer...though we’ll have to LISTEN TO the intricacies of whatever beer you’ve brought...FOR HOURS, LOL!

(In his defense - he brews his own Raspberry Beer with homemade ingredients that is simply AMAZING - and I really don’t even LIKE beer!)

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

If it is good enough I am the master of the "smile, nod and look interested" while mentally adding white pepper and old bay to my grocery list and wondering if I should plant more carnations on the right side of the house. :)

(The answer is yes, always plant more carnations.)