Overview of Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage
Takarkori ancestry
The two Takarkori individuals, who lived in the central Sahara around 7,000 years ago, were genetically distinct from both present-day sub-Saharan Africans and later Eurasian-derived populations. The authors’ best-fitting admixture graph models about 93% of their ancestry as deriving from a previously unsampled ancient North African lineage and about 7% from a deeply diverged Levantine-related source. This North African lineage branches closer to the ancestral Out-of-Africa lineage than the ancient Mota genome from Ethiopia, suggesting that it represents a deeply separated African population rather than simply recent Eurasian back-migration.
Out-of-Africa and Neanderthal affinity
Takarkori shares more genetic drift with the approximately 45,000-year-old Zlatý kůň genome than tested sub-Saharan populations do, including Mota, confirming its closer relationship to the lineage ancestral to non-Africans. However, Takarkori contains only about 0.15% Neanderthal ancestry, based on 12 detected Neanderthal segments. This is far below the 1.4–2.36% typical of most non-African populations and below the 0.6–0.9% found in Taforalt and Neolithic Moroccans. The low level is consistent with only limited ancient gene flow from an Out-of-Africa-related population.
Taforalt
Earlier studies modelled the approximately 15,000-year-old Taforalt population as roughly 63.5% Natufian-related and 36.5% sub-Saharan-related ancestry, although the source of the latter component could not be identified. Using Takarkori as the African-related source produced a much better statistical fit: Taforalt could instead be modelled as 60.8% Natufian-related and 39.2% Takarkori-related ancestry. Yoruba, Dinka, Mota, Shum Laka and other tested African groups produced strongly rejected models. This suggests that much of Taforalt’s previously labelled “sub-Saharan” ancestry may actually derive from a distinct ancient North African lineage.
Fulani and the Sahel
Among present-day populations, the relatively less-admixed FulaniA group shows increased genetic affinity to Takarkori. This signal remains when compared against East African populations carrying similar amounts of Out-of-Africa ancestry, suggesting that it cannot be explained simply by generic Eurasian admixture. Other Sahelian and West African populations show similar signals. The result is consistent with archaeological evidence for the southward movement of Saharan pastoralists during the progressive aridification of the central Sahara, although the study does not estimate a precise percentage of direct Takarkori ancestry in modern Fulani.
Main implication
The study supports the existence of a deeply differentiated indigenous North African lineage that survived in the Sahara for thousands of years, contributed substantially to Taforalt, and may have left genetic traces in later Sahelian populations. Takarkori also shows that prehistoric North African ancestry cannot be reduced to a simple mixture of “sub-Saharan African” and “Eurasian” components. The limited Levantine ancestry in these Saharan pastoralists further suggests that livestock herding spread into the region largely through cultural transmission and limited gene flow rather than large-scale population replacement.
12
6
3August 9, 2026 528 7
