A new study reveals that people in Near Oceania, including New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands, carry some of the oldest human genetics and the richest catalog of Denisovan DNA, indicating interbreeding with at least three distinct Denisovan-like groups.

How this affects you

This discovery changes the understanding of Denisovans as potentially multiple related populations and highlights that our species interbred with other humans rather than simply replacing them. It also underscores the importance of including diverse genetic data, especially from Oceanian peoples, in global biobanks to avoid missing variants relevant to disease, immunity, and drug response, thereby improving medical understanding for all.