PARIS: Modern Europeans are descended from three major groups of ancient humans, not two as was previously thought, according to a gene analysis published yesterday.
Until now, the mainstream theory was that Europeans descended from early farmers who moved into Europe from the Middle East about 7,500 years ago, and local hunter-gatherers they interbred with.
But a DNA analysis in the journal Nature says there was a third group in the mix: people from northern Eurasia. The finding means that North Eurasians — who inhabited a vast swathe of land stretching across much of Russia and northern Asia — contributed to the gene pool both in Europe and North America.
AFP
