It’s been said that if a machine ever gains awareness, it will be not due to our careful programming, but to an unforeseeable anomaly. Perhaps the first anomaly occurred back in the distant primordial fog of human evolution. We may never know. But a new analysis of ancient genomes suggests that different branches of the human family tree interbred multiple times, and that some humans carry DNA from an archaic, unknown ancestor.
A third extinct “ghost species” beyond Neanderthals and Denisovans that interbred with anatomically modern humans has been unveiled by researchers from Spain and Estonia using artificial intelligence. This third extinct species is likely a hybrid or close relative of Neanderthals and Denisovans that crossbred with “Out of Africa” modern humans in Asia.
In August 2018, researchers discovered a bone fragment from a girl whose mother was a Neanderthal and father was a Denisovan in a remote cave in Siberia. In the study, researchers estimate that this hybrid child lived between 79,100 and 118,100 years ago. Modern humans, scientists discovered, share a common ancestor with Denisovans and Neanderthals that lived roughly 600,000 years ago. Later — approximately 390,00 years ago — the Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages split.
The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
Gaia Mission Unlocking Secrets of the Milky Way to New Mystery on the Moon (The Galaxy Report)
The Curious Case of Titan’s Missing CloudsMystery of Gravity Could Soon Be Solved to Will Mars Samples Endanger Earth? (The Galaxy Report)
“Information Can Escape a Black Hole Both On the Outside and Possibly to Another Universe” (Stephen Hawking’s Paradox)
The Fourth Copernican Revolution: “Our Universe May Be One Patch of Space and Time In a Infinite Archipelago” (Weekend Feature)
Human Imprint on Earth’s Rocks to Our Inner Fish (Planet Earth Report)What the First Two Pictures of Black Holes Tell Us to What If Aliens We are Looking for are AI? (The Galaxy Report)
The Most Massive Objects in the Modern Universe –Primordial Relics of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Antarctica’s ‘Factorian Deep’ to Can We Think Without Language? (Planet Earth Report)
Mystery of Our Lopsided Universe to China’s Alien-Signal False Alarm (The Galaxy Report)
