What if the “ghosts” in our DNA are not lost steps in human evolution? A new Science study found DNA patterns that may point to two unknown human groups. Conventional scientists place these groups deep in the past. But the key finding is simpler: ancient human groups were closely related and could mix with one another.1 That fits well with a biblical view of one human family.
Yulin Zhang of UC Berkeley and his team built a computer tool called TRACE that studies small sections of DNA in people alive today. The tool built family trees for those DNA sections and looked for parts that seem to have very old ancestry.1,2 The team then compared those patterns with known Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA.
Some DNA sections did not match either ancient people group. The team said they may have come from two unknown groups. They called one a “ghost” group and the other a “super-archaic” group.1 A Berkeley news release said these groups may have split from other human lines about 800,000 and 1.8 million years ago.2
Yet no DNA from these proposed groups has been found and tested. Their ages and family links come from a computer model built from DNA in people living now.1,2 That difference is important. The DNA patterns are real, but the long ages and family tree are model results.
An engineer would ask what goes into the model. TRACE used DNA data, family tree rules, and ideas about how DNA changes through time.1 Like any model, its answer depended on the data, rules, and starting ideas. A model can be useful, but it is not a direct record of the past.
The study also points to a strong pattern of genetic mixing in humans. The ghost group may have passed DNA to ancestors of people alive today, and the super-archaic group may have passed DNA through Denisovans.2 The researchers described human history as “more like a complex web” instead of a simple branching tree because mixing appears to have happened many times.2 This makes sense in light of the genealogical records listed throughout Scripture.
Other DNA makes the evidence of mixed genetics even clearer. Scientists have sequenced DNA from a person who had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father.3 That is direct confirmation that these two groups could have children together. This mixing matters because successful gene flow requires reproductive compatibility. The DNA evidence shows that there was no reproductive barrier between these two groups. They could exchange genes and pass them to later generations.2,3
ICR has noted the same basic point. Dr. Jeffrey Tomkins reported that modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans were genetically close enough to produce fertile young.4 This fits a creationist view in which these were varied human populations, not separate steps on the way to modern man.
The new study adds to our understanding of human genetics, but its evolutionary timeline should not be confused with the genetic evidence itself. What researchers found is simply a network of related human groups, which fits the history that the Bible portrays: one human family spread after Babel, formed distinct populations, and later mixed again.1,2 Human variety and human unity appear together in the data.
References
- Zhang, Y. et al. 2026. Recovering Signatures of Archaic Hominin Introgression Using Ancestral Recombination Graphs. Science. 393 (6814).
- Sanders, R. New Technique Pinpoints Human DNA Inherited from ‘Ghost’ Ancestors. UC Berkeley news release. Posted on news.berkeley.edu July 30, 2026.
- Slon, V. et al. 2018. The Genome of the Offspring of a Neanderthal Mother and a Denisovan Father. Nature. 561 (7721): 113–116.
- Tomkins, J. P. Humans and Neanderthals More Similar Than Polar and Brown Bears. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org June 28, 2020.
* Dr. Corrado earned a Ph.D. in systems engineering from Colorado State University and a Th.M. from Liberty University. He is a freelance contributor to ICR’s Creation Science Update, works in the nuclear industry, and is a Captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
