7,000-year-old mummy DNA reveals a 'ghost' branch of humanity

Ancient remains have opened the door to a long-lost human lineage

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Today, the Sahara Desert is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. But it wasn’t always this way. Roll the clock back 7,000 years and the Sahara was a lush, green savannah, teeming with wildlife and dotted with lakes — including one the size of modern-day Germany. It was, in other words, the perfect place for our ancient ancestors to settle.

But who were they? Thanks to new research, we might have found out. Scientists have successfully analysed the DNA of two naturally mummified women from the Takarkori rock shelter, in what is now southwestern Libya. Their findings, published in the journal Nature, reveal something extraordinary: these ancient people belonged to a previously unknown branch of the human family tree.

The two women were part of a so-called ‘ghost population’ — one that had only ever been glimpsed as faint genetic echoes in modern humans, but, up until now, had never been found in the flesh.