AP – What does it mean to be human? For a long time, the answer seemed clear. Our species, Homo sapiens – with our complex thoughts and deep emotions – were the only true humans to ever walk the Earth. Earlier forms, like the Neanderthals, were thought to be just steps along the path of […]
The science of human evolution has made big leaps in recent years, and it’s painting a new picture of our origins. We’re closer than ever to our extinct cousins like
The DNA evidence showed that H. sapiens mated with groups including Neanderthals and Denisovans. It even revealed evidence of other ghost populations groups who are part of our genetic code, but whose fossils we haven t found yet.
Scientists started to realize all these hominins weren’t our direct ancestors. Instead, they were more like our cousins: lineages that split off from a common.