A new study shows that modern Europeans have derived from three main populations rather than two as previously thought. Lazaridis et al. sequenced the genomes of several ancient humans from Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden, and compared them with the genomes of modern humans. The authors found that most but not all modern Europeans are descended from western European hunter-gatherers, ancient north Eurasians and early European farmers. This study provides insights into the evolutionary history of modern Europeans. Further work will determine when these three main groups converged to produce modern combinations of European alleles.