Wow, that is the understatement of the year! I had to get the dictionary out for about every other word. Its no wonder I stink at the New York Times Crossword Puzzle.
Here’s my translation:
*At the center of the debate on the emergence of modern humans and their spread throughout the globe is the question of whether archaic Homo lineages contributed to the modern human gene pool, and more importantly, whether such contributions impacted the evolutionary adaptation of our species. *
The research we did answers an important question in the field (really, who ever says otherwise?), namely did early homo sapiens interbreed with other human-like species and did that breeding contribute to the evolution of homo sapiens.
A major obstacle to answering this question is that low levels of admixture with archaic lineages are not expected to leave extensive traces in the modern human gene pool because of genetic drift.
Usually this question is hard to answer because of the enormous genetic variability seen in humans
Loci that have undergone strong positive selection, however, offer a unique opportunity to identify low-level admixture with archaic lineages, provided that the introgressed archaic allele has risen to high frequency under positive selection.
However, if we got a gene from another human-like species that gave us a big evolutionary advantage, we may be able to find it.
The gene microcephalin (MCPH1) regulates brain size during development and has experienced positive selection in the lineage leading to Homo sapiens. Within modern humans, a group of closely related haplotypes at this locus, known as haplogroup D, rose from a single copy 
37,000 years ago and swept to exceptionally high frequency (70% worldwide today) because of positive selection. Here, we examine the origin of haplogroup D. By using the interhaplogroup divergence test, we show that haplogroup D likely originated from a lineage separated from modern humans 1.1 million years ago and introgressed into humans by 37,000 years ago.
As human-like species diverged a million years ago, another human-like species had a variation in the microcephalin gene (the group D) but homo sapiens did not. Much more recently, these variation was reintroduced back into homo sapiens where it became very common because it was evolutionarily adaptive.
This finding supports the possibility of admixture between modern humans and archaic Homo populations (Neanderthals being one possibility).
Because this variation was reintroduced back into homo sapiens after we had evolved to not have it, it makes it likely that we gopt it by breeding from another related, human-like species. (In the main article they mention that this variation is more common in Europeans than Africans, supporting the idea that a human-like species living in Europe but not Africa was the source… hence the focus on Neandrathals.)
Furthermore, it buttresses the important notion that, through such adminture, our species has benefited evolutionarily by gaining new advantageous alleles. The interhaplogroup divergence test developed here may be broadly applicable to the detection of introgression at other loci in the human genome or in genomes of other species.
We might gotten other cool gene variations from breeding other human-like species.
The GOP is now Democrat. What are you going to find to bullshit about now?
Things that make you go “Hmmmmm…”
