A paleogenomic study of 12,000-year-old skeletal remains from the Congo Basin has identified a "ghost lineage" of humans that diverged from other African populations over 100,000 years ago. The research, appearing in Science Advances, provides new insights into the deep population structure of Central Africa before the expansion of Bantu-speaking farmers.
This previously unknown group shows genetic adaptations to rainforest environments, including specific metabolic pathways for processing forest-based starches and immunity against endemic tropical pathogens. The discovery underscores the immense genetic diversity of early Holocene Africa and challenges existing models of human migration and adaptation in the continent's interior.