{
  "id": 273804,
  "title": "Traces of Two Extinct 'Ghost' Ancestors Were Found Hiding in Modern Human DNA, Hinting at Our Extremely Complex Family Tree",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/07/traces-of-two-extinct-ghost-ancestors-were-found-hiding-in-modern",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-07T15:34:44.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/traces-of-two-extinct-ghost-ancestors-were-found-hiding-in-modern-human-dna-hinting-at-our-extremely-complex-family-tree-180989250/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Researchers used a new method to investigate past interbreeding with Homo sapiens that doesn't require ancient DNA. The technique identified areas of living humans' genomes that came from unknown hominins, including one from a 1.8 million-year-old lineage",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}