Basal West African is a hypothetical line of descent[1][2] that is no longer extant.
[4][6] 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).
[7][8][9] Chen et al. (2020) found that Africans have higher Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought.
All African samples showed evidence for minor Neanderthal ancestry, but always at lower levels than observed in Eurasians.
[1][2] While contending with the model that supports Southern Africans as the earliest group to split from modern humans, Basal West Africans, as a hypothetical lineage, support two models of equal likelihood – an early basal group from Eastern Africa, which was part of an ancient genetic structure in Africa, are part of the modern ancestry of modern Western Africans (e.g., Yoruba, Mende) or the admixed ancestry of modern Western Africans (e.g., Yoruba, Mende) are the result of early migratory basal groups from different parts of Africa (i.e., Southeastern Africa, Western Africa).