More recently, Dr. Thompson teamed up with experts in ancient DNA and began searching for skeletons in Malawi. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyPrevious studies of living East Africans had hinted at some Near Eastern ancestry. But the new analysis shows that people from the Near East spread into East Africa at least 3,100 years ago. But some people also inherited a mix of other ancestries, including genes from the Near East and some from the ancient East African hunter-gatherers. Ancient DNA in skeletons from western Africa would be just as valuable; it may hold profound secrets about the early history of our species.

Source: New York Times September 21, 2017 16:00 UTC