(DC) (Smithsonian) When early modern humans encountered Neanderthals and Denisovans, these archaic humans contributed DNA to our genomes. But how many archaic human groups did we encounter and what role does archaic human DNA play in the lives of present-day people? Laurits Skov is a geneticist at UC Berkeley studying the role of archaic DNA in modern humans. In this presentation he will discuss evolutionary history of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA found in the genomes of >30,000 people living today.

Moderator: Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist and educator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.