Priya Moorjani, Associate Professor of Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Development, and her lab have developed a novel genomic analysis method that identified DNA inherited from two previously unknown ancient human relatives and established a timeline for these interbreeding events, providing new insights into the complexity of human evolution.
Excerpt from Berkeley News: "Two mysterious human relatives left their genetic footprints in the modern human genome alongside the DNA of Neanderthals and Denisovans, underscoring the fact that our ancestors interbred with many groups of hominins they encountered over millions of years of evolution." Read more in the Berkeley News article here.
Illustration by Meaghan Marohn: Using genealogical relationships in DNA, UC Berkeley researchers have uncovered hidden contributions from extinct human populations that left no sequenced genomes.