A mosaic origins of Homo sapiens?
For decades, the story of Homo sapiens was told as a relatively straightforward ascent: one lineage, one continent, one eventual global success. But the latest genetic research suggests that our origins were anything but tidy. Instead of a single evolutionary path, modern humans appear to have emerged from the long-delayed reunion of two ancient lineages—distant cousins who had gone their separate ways over a million years earlier. This new model, built on cutting-edge genomic analysis rather than fossil fragments, reveals a far messier beginning: a braid, not a branch. ...