Hunter-gatherer woman's dna could unlock 'ghost lineage' of ancient humans

EXPERTS BELIEVE THEY MAY HAVE UNMASKED THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN US AND A LINEAGE OF ANCIENT HUMANS LOST TO TIME – THE REMAINS OF A HUNTER-GATHER WOMAN MAY HOLD THE SECRETS BEHIND THIS

'GHOST LINEAGE' 07:39, 01 Jun 2025 Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a woman that reveals a lineage of an ancient human population previously only theorised by experts.

Researchers discovered the “ghost” lineage of humans after studying multiple ancient skeletons in an attempt to map the genetic diversity across ancient China. The find was published in a

recent study in the Journal of Science. The oldest person the researchers tested while mapping out the genetic diversity was found to be the missing link between Tibetans and the mysterious

theorised ghost lineage. The origins of the inhabitants of the Tibetan Plateau is a question and has remained shrouded in mystery to experts. Previous studies exposed Tibetans have northern

East Asian ancestry alongside a unique ghost ancestry which has mystified researchers. This missing link is a woman who experts have dubbed Xingyi_EN – her genes might solve this long

standing mystery of who this ghost lineage of humans were. The discovery was made at the Xingyi archaeological site, China, and the burials dated back from the Neolithic period – 7000 to

2000 B.C. An isotope analysis of Xingyi_EN’s diet has revealed she was probably a hunter-gatherer. The woman’s genome surprised experts due to her ancestry being not very similar to East and

South Asians. Article continues below Living roughly 7,100 years ago, Xingyi_EN’s ancestry was actually closer to a "deeply diverged" Asian population whose DNA contributed to the

ghost population found only in modern Tibetans. A "ghost population" refers to a group of people who were not previously known from skeletal remains but whose existence has been

inferred through statistical analysis of ancient and modern DNA. The mystery ancestry seen in Xingyi_EN does not match Neanderthals or Denisovans, both well-known ancient populations that

did contribute some "ghost" DNA to humans. Experts have dubbed this ghost ancestry the Basal Asian Xingyi lineage and for thousands of years, the lineage was separated from other

human groups, meaning there was no admixture. "There likely were more of her kind, but they just haven't been sampled yet," study co-author Qiaomei Fu, a palaeontologist at

the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Beijing, said. "Ancient humans that lived in this region may be key to addressing several remaining questions on the

prehistoric populations of East and Southeast Asia," the researchers wrote in the study. Article continues below "The mixed population has lasted for quite a long time and

contributed genes to some Tibetans today," Fu explained. Experts in the study have called for the findings to be taken with caution as the study only gives genetic evidence from a

single person. They add more research is needed to better understand the relationship between Xingyi_EN and the Tibetan ghost lineage.