{"id":2265,"date":"2025-12-04T12:52:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/?p=2265"},"modified":"2025-12-08T16:57:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:57:02","slug":"homo-sapiens-specific-evolution-unveiled-by-ancient-southern-african-genomes-published-in-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/homo-sapiens-specific-evolution-unveiled-by-ancient-southern-african-genomes-published-in-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Homo\u00a0sapiens-specific evolution unveiled by ancient southern African genomes, published in Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mattias Jakobsson<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Carina
Carina Schlebusch<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Mattias Jakobsson and Carina Schlebusch are two co-authors of the study on ancient South Africans that was just published.<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Homo sapiens<\/em> evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago in Africa, later spreading across the globe, but the early evolutionary process is debated. Here we present whole-genome sequencing data for 28 ancient southern African individuals, including six individuals with 25\u00d7 to 7.2\u00d7 genome coverage, dated to between 10,200 and 150 calibrated years before present (cal.\u2009bp). All ancient southern Africans dated to more than 1,400\u2009cal.\u2009bp show a genetic make-up that is outside the range of genetic variation in modern-day humans (including southern African Khoe-San people, although some retain up to 80% ancient southern African ancestry), manifesting in a large fraction of Homo sapiens<\/em>-specific variants that are unique to ancient southern Africans. Homo sapiens<\/em>-specific variants at amino acid-altering sites fixed for all humans\u2014which are likely to have evolved rapidly on the Homo sapiens<\/em> branch\u2014were enriched for genes associated with kidney function. Some Homo sapiens<\/em>-specific variants fixed in ancient southern Africans\u2014which are likely to have adapted rapidly on the southern African branch\u2014were enriched for genes associated with protection against ultraviolet light. The ancient southern Africans show little spatiotemporal stratification for 9,000\u2009years, consistent with a large, stable Holocene population transcending archaeological phases. While southern Africa served as a long-standing geographical refugium, there is outward gene flow over 8,000\u2009years ago; however, inward gene flow manifests only after around 1,400\u2009years ago. The ancient genomes reported here are therefore key to the evolution of Homo sapiens<\/em>, and are important for advancing our understanding of human genomic variation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fig. 3. Graphical representation of the inferred human population history of southern Africa<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jakobsson, M., Bernhardsson, C., McKenna, J., Hollfelder, N., Vicente, M., Edlund, H., Coutinho, A., Sj\u00f6din, P., Brink, J., Zipfel, B., Malmstr\u00f6m, H., Lombard, M. & Schlebusch, C. (2025). Homo sapiens<\/em>-specific evolution unveiled by ancient southern African genomes. Nature<\/em>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-025-09811-4<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read Full Article<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Related content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The study co-authors with the sampled bone. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Ten-thousand-year-old genomes from southern Africa change picture of human evolution
3 Dec 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UU Press Release<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Mandible
Mandible of Matjes River 1 woman who lived 7900 years ago in southern Africa. The material is housed at the Bloemfontein Museum, South Africa. Photo: Mattias Jakobsson<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Ten-thousand-year-old genomes from southern Africa change picture of human evolution
3 Dec 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jakobsson Lab news item<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Foto: Sara S\u00e4llstr\u00f6m \/ Sveriges Radio<\/sup>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Vetenskapsradion nyheter<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nya DNA-sp\u00e5r: m\u00e4nsklighetens ursprung kan ha tolkats fel
4 Dec 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sveriges Radio<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mattias Jakobsson and Carina Schlebusch are two co-authors of the study on ancient South Africans that was just published. Abstract Homo sapiens evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago in Africa, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,51,23,69,60,61],"tags":[83,195,46,96,194,67],"class_list":["post-2265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chp","category-in-the-media","category-outreach","category-people","category-publications","category-research","tag-africa","tag-evolution","tag-genetics","tag-genomics","tag-homo-sapiens","tag-human-past"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2277,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions\/2277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}