Another cousin

Artificial intelligence has discovered an unknown human ancestor

Anatoly Glossev, Vesti

Not only Neanderthals and Denisovans have left their mark on the DNA of modern man, but also a third unidentified species. He could be a hybrid of the two named species or a "cousin" of the Denisovan, who separated from him early enough.

Such conclusions are presented in a scientific article published in the journal Nature Communications by a group led by Oscar Lao from the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (Mondal et al., Approximate Bayesian computing with deep learning supports a third archaic introduction in Asia and Oceania).

The authors analyzed the DNA of modern inhabitants of Asia and Oceania, who preserved the genetic heritage of the oldest inhabitants of this region. However, the task of constructing demographic models that explain the data obtained turned out to be too difficult for traditional methods.

Then the researchers called for the help of artificial intelligence. As stated in the press release of the study (Artificial intelligence applied to the genome identifies an unknown human ancestor), this work was the first in which deep learning algorithms were used to find out the ancestry of humanity based on genetic data.

"Deep learning is an algorithm that simulates the functioning of the mammalian nervous system <...>,– explains Lao. – We used this property to get an algorithm that learns to predict human demography using [simulations] of genomes obtained using hundreds of thousands of simulations. Whenever we run a simulation, we travel a possible path in human history."

Having trained the neural network on artificially obtained data, the researchers assigned it to analyze real DNA.

As a result, artificial intelligence revealed traces of an unknown human species in the samples. The authors believe that this mysterious ancestor could be a hybrid of a Neanderthal with a Denisovan. Another version says that the evolutionary branch of this "Mr. X" is a fairly early branch from the Denisov line. New research will help to finally establish its affiliation. In addition, the conclusions of artificial intelligence have yet to be verified by other scientific groups (only then the discovery can be considered confirmed).

By the way, earlier "Vesti.Science" wrote that Homo sapiens interbred with Denisovans at least twice. We also talked about traces of DNA of an unknown human ancestor found in the pedigree of these mysterious Denisova Cave inhabitants. We also talked about another unknown species that shared its genes with the inhabitants of the Pacific islands.

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