The fascinating but little-known history of how the Sahara was transformed from a green and fertile land into the largest hot desert in the world.

The Sahara isn't exactly the place where you would want to store your DNA for a few millennia and expect it to still be readable, so it was a bit of a sensation that researchers recently published the first genome-wide analysis of 7000-year-old DNA of humans who lived there, when it wasn't a desert yet. A good excuse to look a bit more closely at the "Green Sahara" and how it became the Sahara desert we know today. It also serves as a warning, as some places are at risk of desertification due to climate change. The resulting feature is out now: **Becoming a desert** Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 10, 19 May 2025, Pages R357-R359 Restricted access to full text and PDF download (will become open access one year after publication) Magic link for free access (first seven weeks only) See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features. My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky (starting 22.2.2025), but for this purpose I have to post them again, outside of the thread. (I think threads only transfer if the first post was transferred, so once I start a new thread it should work.) Last year's thread is here . The Acacus Mountains in Southwest Libya, where archaeological excavations at sites such as the Takarkori Cave have revealed a rich fauna and human habitation during the African Humid Period. (Photo: Franzfoto/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).)

DNA from ancient mummies reveals a mysterious, long-isolated human lineage in the once-lush Sahara Desert, reshaping Africa’s genetic...

A new study reveals that a distinct North African human lineage lived in the Central Sahara over 7,000 years ago, during the African humid period. This population had been long isolated from other groups....

Researchers have decoded the first ancient human genomes from the Green Sahara, uncovering a long-isolated North African lineage that thrived over 7,000 years ago during the African Humid Period.

Uno studio su Nature, con la partecipazione dell’Università di Firenze e della Sapienza di Roma, svela nuove informazioni sulla preistoria del Sahara

Pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into the Green Sahara, where an isolated, distinct North African ancestry persisted.

New research traces the origins of the Fulani to the Green Sahara, reshaping our understanding of migration, culture, and ancestry in Africa