A groundbreaking genetic analysis of 13,000-year-old skeletal remains discovered in Botswana's Okavango Delta has revealed a previously unknown 'ghost lineage' of modern humans. The study, appearing in Cell Genomics, identifies specific alleles associated with resistance to water-borne neurotoxins and parasitic infections that are unique to this population, which appears to have diverged from other African hunter-gatherer groups at the end of the last ice age.
This 'Okavango lineage' provides the first genomic evidence of a population that specialized exclusively in high-humidity wetland environments. The research highlights how rapid climatic shifts at the end of the Pleistocene forced human groups into isolated ecological niches, leading to localized genetic adaptations that are now being rediscovered through ancient DNA analysis.