Searching for archaic contribution in Africa

Abstract

Searching for archaic contribution in AfricaContext: Africa's role in the narrative of human evolution is indisputably emphasised in the emergence Homo sapiens. However, once humans disperse beyond Africa, the history of those who stayed remains vastly understudied lacking the proper attention it deserves as the birthplace of both modern and archaic humans. The sequencing of Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes has elucidated evidence of admixture between archaic and modern humans outside of Africa but has not aided efforts in answering whether archaic admixture happened within Africa. Objectives:We review here the state of research for archaic introgression in African populations and discuss recent insights into this topic.Methods: Gathering published sources and recently released preprints, this review reports on the different methods developed for detecting archaic introgression. Particularly we discuss how relevant these are when implemented on African populations and what findings these studies have shown so far.Results: Methods for detecting archaic introgression have been predominantly developed and implemented on non-African populations. Recent preprints present new methods considering African populations. While a number of studies using these methods suggest archaic introgression in Africa, without an African archaic genome to validate these results, such findings remain as putative archaic introgression. Conclusion:In light of the caveats with implementing current archaic introgression detection methods in Africa, we recommend future studies to concentrate on unravelling the complicated demographic history of Africa through means of ancient DNA where possible and through more focused efforts to sequence modern DNA from more representative populations across the African continent

Favored Races in the Struggle for Life: Racism and the Speciation Concept

“…It is unclear, however, if that adaptation might have been sufficient enough to make those regional populations akin to biological races. Thus, the evidence now suggests that out of Africa includes some local adaptation of regional subpopulations as well as episodes of hybridization with archaic human species (H. naledi-Africa; H. floresiensis, H. neanderthalensis-Eurasia; and H. floresiensis Denisovans-East Asia) (Browning et al 2018;Santander et al 2019;Wall et al 2019).…”

Human biology and ancient DNA: exploring disease, domestication and movement

“…This provides an important layer of detail that is all but invisible to conventional macroscopic examination of skeletal lesions. Santander et al (2019) review the state of research for archaic introgression in African populations and explore recent developments. They make the important point that, while much research has focused on the modern human populations that left Africa and subsequent introgression between Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans, little attention is paid to the deep genetic diversity of African human populations.…”