Utilizing Western Africans (e.g.,
Esan of
Nigeria,
Mende of
Sierra Leone,
western Gambians), the
divergence of a set of early modern or archaic humans, numbering around 25,000 or between 23,000 and 27,000, from either the last common ancestor of the
San people and all other modern humans, or humans and
Neanderthals, is approximated to have occurred between 1,020,000 BP and 360,000 BP. Basal West Africans did not split before
Neanderthals split from modern humans. Between 124,000 BP and 0 BP, 2% – 19% of the
genes may have introgressed into ancestors of modern West Africans as a result of admixture with this
archaic human population. The same study also suggests that at least part of this archaic admixture is also present in Eurasians/non-Africans, and that the admixture event or events range from 0 to 124 ka B.P, which includes the period before the Out-of-Africa migration and prior to the African/Eurasian split (thus affecting in part the common ancestors of both Africans and Eurasians/non-Africans). Chen et al. (2020) found that Africans have higher
Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought. 2,504 African samples from all over Africa were analyzed and tested on Neanderthal ancestry. All African samples showed evidence for minor Neanderthal ancestry, but always at lower levels than observed in Eurasians. ==West African Hunter-Gatherers, Khoisan, and Taforalts==