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John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: "We do not know what this African population may have been. It is tempting to speculate. But I've got to say it is just too soon to know."
The hypothesis is based on DNA analysis and statistics, as there is no fossil evidence.
A ghost population is a population whose existence has been estimated through statistical techniques.
These then bred with the ancestors of modern West Africans, sometime in the past 124,000 years.
It is possible that there are still other unknown archaic human species.
Scientists found links to the Mende people of Sierra Leone.
They also found links to the Yoruba from Nigeria.
And an ethnic group of south Nigeria, the Esan.
Finally, there were also links to western areas of The Gambia.
Scientists analyzed genomes from West African populations.
Scientists analyzed 405 genomes from four West African populations.
The scientists compared the genes with the Denisovans, a population who lived at the same time as the Neanderthals in Asia.
This subspecies of early humans, only known through DNA, mated with Oceanic populations.
Scientists also compared the genes with the ones from Neanderthals, our closest extinct human relatives, who lived about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago.
Neanderthals are believed to have mated with ancient Europeans.
Scientists recently discovered a "ghost population" of ancient humans in West Africa. These archaic humans' DNA is still part of the current genetic material in some populations. But who were they? And why only now have we become aware of these ancestors?
Click through the following gallery to find out more about this fascinating discovery.
Modern humans still carry the genes of this population to this day.
This means that interbreeding occurred between these various species and subspecies of archaic humans, leading to a mix of genes.
Scientists estimate that the group had probably around 20,000 individuals.
So it makes more sense to perhaps think of our evolution as a family tree.
We did not evolve in a straight timeline fashion. Various species shared the same time and space.
Scientists discovered evidence of a "ghost population" of ancient humans that lived in Africa about 43,000 years ago.
As the Guardian reports, it is estimated that this "ghost population" split from the ancestors of Neanderthals and modern humans between 360,000 and 1 million years ago.
For many years, our planet was home to different species and subspecies of humans.
"Ghost population" discovered: who are these ancient humans?
The missing link in human evolution
LIFESTYLE Science
Scientists recently discovered a "ghost population" of ancient humans in West Africa. These archaic humans' DNA is still part of the current genetic material in some populations. But who were they? And why only now have we become aware of these ancestors?
Click through the following gallery to find out more about this fascinating discovery.