7000 Years Old Genome Analysis Unveiled Lush Green Habitat of Sahara Desert 5pp1l Technology News

Rare DNA found in the barrens of the Sahara reveals the ancestral lineage from North Africa with widespread pastoralism 6538

Written by Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 16 April 2025 19:14 IST

7000 Years Old Genome Analysis Unveiled Lush Green Habitat of Sahara Desert

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ David Stanley 7174n

Newly discovered ancient DNA reveals that the Sahara was once a thriving, green landscape

Highlights

Rare DNA found in the Sahara dates back 7000 years in the green past
Genome belongs to the North African lineage with pastoralism evidence
Takarkori individuals are closely related to the ancestors from Taforal

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The silence of the Sahara desert unveils the evidence of a verdant past rooted in North African lineage, published on 2 April in the Journal Nature. The study took place in the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, , together with an archaeological mission in the Sahara at Sapienza University of Rome, revealed that the two mummified individuals discovered from the Takarkori rock shelter in southwest Libya dated back over 7000 years. The findings predict the genetic history of early North African populations during the African Humid Period.

Genome Analysis 225l1z

The Sahara desert was once a green savannah between 14,500 and 5000 years from the present, along the water bodies that promoted human occupation with pastoralism in the Holocene epoch. The Sahara Desert has rare DNA preservation due to its present habitat, leading to limited knowledge of genetic history. However, the Sahara was not a barren land that we know today; in fact, a green and fertile land dotted with grasslands and lakes. The study suggests that the DNA retrieval unveils a previously unknown North African ancestral lineage.

Evidence from the analysis predicts that these ancient people were different from both sub-Saharan and Eurasian groups, signalling a unique North African crowd that played a crucial role in the prehistoric period. However, the DNA contains no direct evidence of blending with neighbouring areas of that time. This, in turn, highlights the genetic isolation and importance in the history of human evolution.

Ancient Europeans Retained Dark Skin, Hair and Eyes Until the Iron Age

The Takarkori individuals are closely related to the ancestors from Taforalt Cave, Morocco, linked with the Iberomaurusian lithic industry and predating the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). However, Takarkri individuals show ten times less Neanderthal hierarchy than Valentine farmers, still significantly more than present sub-Saharan genomes. Taforalt individuals have half the Neanderthal blend of non-Africans.

Findings and Implications 73213a

The study demonstrates not just reshaping the understanding of ancient North African hierarchy but also puts strong emphasis on the importance of the Green Sahara in the past. Not just that, pastoralism flourished through cultural diffusion into a divergent, isolated North African ancestral lineage that spread in North Africa at the time of the late Pleistocene epoch. Researchers continue to explore the region, and there could be more secrets unleashed from this vast green landscape, bridging the gaps in the human origins story.

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