Study Finds Unknown Ancient Human DNA in Modern Genomes

Scientists used a new computer method called TRACE to look at the DNA of 503 people from all over the world.

They found that about 2 percent of the DNA in people who are not from Africa comes from ancient humans, like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

But they also found a tiny bit of DNA that doesn’t match any known ancient human.

This mysterious DNA, called a "ghost" lineage, might have split from our family tree more than 500,000 years ago.

It shows up in everyone’s DNA, even in parts of the genome that were thought to be only modern human.

The discovery means our family tree could be more complicated than we thought, but scientists need more evidence to be sure.