It is a North African human lineage isolated for a long time in the Central Sahara during the African wet period. It took place more than 7000 years ago. The human lineage of Sahara is under the magnifying glass.
The research provides new crucial knowledge about the African wet period. It happened between 14,500 and 5,000 years ago, when the Sahara desert was a green savanna. It was rich in water masses that facilitated human occupation and the expansion of grazing. The subsequent aridification turned this region into the largest desert in the world.
Neanderthal DNA
Genomic analyzes revealed the ancestry of the individuals of Takarkori’s rock refuge (Libya). It comes mainly from a North African lineage that diverged from the populations of sub -Saharan Africa. It was at the same time that the modern human lineages that expanded out of Africa about 50,000 years ago.
The newly described lineage remained isolated. It reveals a deep genetic continuity in North Africa during the late ice age. It remains a central genetic component of current North African peoples, which highlights its unique inheritance.
The human lineage of Sahara tells us about the intricate relationships between our ancestors. The study also sheds light on Neanderthal ancestry. Takarkori individuals have ten times less Neanderthal than people from outside Africa, but more than contemporary sub -Saharan Africans. «The first populations in North Africa were largely isolated. But they received Neanderthal traces due to the genetic flow from outside Africa ».
Green Sahara
«Our research challenges previous assumptions on the history of the population of North Africa. There is a deeply rooted and isolated genetic lineage for a long time ». The first author declared it in a statement, nothing Salem, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology. «This discovery reveals how pastoralism extended by the Green Sahara. Probably through cultural exchange instead of large -scale migration ».
«The study highlights the importance of ancient DNA. It can rebuild human history in regions such as central and northern Africa. Which independently supports the archaeological hypotheses, ”said the main author, David Caramelli, of the University of Florence. «We shed light on the remote past of Sahara. We expand our knowledge about human migrations, adaptations and cultural evolution in this key region ».
