he Homo-Sapiens Sapiens or also known as the modern human is believed to be the only surviving human species or at least it was until some researchers started to dig into the DNA of our ancestors to find that our planet is actually populated by multiple species of humans.
Many studies have shown that a good portion of the world’s population has between 6% to 10% Neanderthal DNA. This is because the Neanderthals were not a direct ancestor, but more like a distant cousin of the Homo-sapiens, and despite the 100,000 years of war between the two species, some breaded together.
However, in some cases, there are certain humans that tend to have more DNA as well as physical characteristics similar to Neanderthals rather than Homo-sapiens. During the last 150,000 years, the world was mainly populated by these two aforementioned species, however, there was a handful of minor species which we don’t know much yet as not much of their remains have been found.
A good example is the Denisovan species which the world had recently found about in 2010 when a finger bone had been discovered in a cave in Siberia. This species in minority is believed to be at least 130,000 years old and it presents to have its own characteristics, something in between Neanderthals and Homo-sapiens.
Since 2010, more remains from this species have been unearthed and the search began to identify humans that have similar DNA to the Denisovan species. In a study performed in 2021, it has been discovered that an indigenous Filipino group has the highest known Denisovan Ancestry in the world, with some members being 40% Denisovan based on the DNA analysis.
To be more specific, there is are 25 distinct ethnic groups self-identifying as “Negritos” who are believed to be the earliest modern human inhabitants of the Philippines and also present the highest percentage of Denisovan DNA. This means that the Denisovan species must have come close to extinction within that specific part of the world.
Seeing that there are some humans around the world sharing the DNA of what the world considers to be the “extinct” human species gives hope that the modern human carried the DNA of even older species. According to Live Science, at least 20% of Neanderthal DNA is in modern humans.
It may be that some of us may only have the early Homo-Sapien as an ancestor, whilst other modern humans have multiple ancestors. Only a very small percentage of people had genetic tests to see how much DNA they inherited from prehistoric ancestors. Therefore, it is difficult to predict how much of the world’s population is a direct descendent of Homo-Sapiens.
Who knows there could be certain people that are descendants of species that have been forgotten or not even discovered.
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