Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were discovered, curiosity about these ancient hominins has surged. How did they differ from us? Were there similarities? Did our ancestors coexist peacefully with them, or was there conflict? The discovery of the Denisovans, a Neanderthal-like group that lived in Asia and Oceania, has added to these questions. Now, an international team of geneticists and AI experts is providing new insights into our shared history with these ancient groups. Led by Joshua Akey, a professor at Princeton’s Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, the researchers ha…