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(WACH / FOX NEWS) - The DNA of an unnamed African-American man from South Carolina has added an "extremely ancient root" to the human tree.

Scientists believe the man's Y chromosome has lineage that dates back to 338,000 years ago. Results of the study compiled by research groups around the world have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Michael Hammer, an associate professor in the University of Arizona's department of ecology and evolutionary biology and a research scientist at the UA's Arizona Research Labs, told Fox News that is "a time when anatomically modern humans had not yet evolved."

Fox News reports the man's genes were obtained by a consumer genetic testing company and given to the National Geographic Geographic Project.

“[His] lineage didn't fit anywhere on the existing Y chromosome tree, even though the tree had been constructed based on perhaps a half-million individuals or more. Nobody expected to find anything like this," Hammer said to Fox News.

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