Closest-known ancestor of today’s Native Americans found in Siberia
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Indigenous Americans, who include Alaska Natives, Canadian First Nations, and Native Americans, descend from humans who crossed an ancient land bridge connecting Siberia in Russia to Alaska tens of thousands of years ago. But scientists are unclear when and where these early migrants moved from place to place. Two new studies shed light on this mystery and uncover the most closely related Native American ancestor outside North America.
In the first study, researchers led by Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, sequenced the whole genomes of 34 individuals who lived in Siberia, the land bridge Beringia, and Alaska from 600 to nearly 32,000 years ago. The oldest individuals in the sample—two men who lived in far northern Siberia—represent the earliest known humans from that part of the world. There are no direct genetic traces of these men in any of the other groups the team surveyed, suggesting their culture likely died out about 23,000 years ago when the region became too cold to be inhabitable.
Elsewhere on the Eurasian continent, however, a group arose that would eventually move into Siberia, splinter, and cross Beringia into North America, the DNA analysis reveals. A woman known as Kolyma1, who lived in northeastern Siberia about 10,000 years ago, shares about two-thirds of her genome with living Native Americans. “It’s the closest we have ever gotten to a Native American ancestor outside the Americas,” Willerslev says. Still, notes Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks who was not involved with the work, the relation is nevertheless distant.
Based on the time it would have taken for key mutations to pop up, the ancestors of today’s Native Americans splintered off from these ancient Siberians about 24,000 years ago , roughly matching up with previous archaeological and genetic evidence for when the peopling of the Americas occurred, the team reports today in Nature.
Additional DNA evidence suggests a third wave of migrants, the Neo-Siberians, moved into northeastern Siberia from the south sometime after 10,000 years ago. These migrants mixed with the ancient Siberians, planting the genetic roots of many of the area’s present-day populations.
Different groups have mixed and migrated throughout Siberia in Russia and into North America over the past 40,000 years
The results are exciting, if a bit unsurprising, says Connie Mulligan, an anthropologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “To me, it makes total sense that there were a lot of populations migrating through the region and replacing each other, with some of them moving into the Americas.”
In the second study, led by biologist Pavel Flegontov at the University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic and also appearing today in Nature, Potter and colleagues attempt to uncover the roots of a genetic family known to scientists as Paleo-Eskimos (although this term is disputed by Indigenous groups themselves). Archaeological records suggest the ancestors of these individuals moved into modern-day Alaska and the Canadian Arctic about 5000 years ago, but how they relate to modern groups remains a mystery.
The scientists analyzed the genomes of 48 ancient individuals from sites in the North American Arctic and Siberia dating from between about 7000 to 300 years ago. They then compared their DNA to those of other modern and ancient Indigenous people across northern North America and looked for patterns in shared ancestry and language families.
Paleo-Eskimos originating in Siberia crossed Beringia about 5000 years ago , mixing with indigenous Americans from a previous wave of Siberian migrants, as well as a much later lineage called Neo-Eskimos, the team concludes. This tangled family tree underpins the ancestry of modern speakers of indigenous Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut languages.
Based on the DNA analysis, the group that gave rise to Kolyma1 identified by Willerslev’s team may be the ancestors, or very close relations, of the Paleo-Eskimos. “[They are] in the right spot to be ancestors, or related in some way, to the Paleo-Eskimos that expanded into North America around 5000 years ago,” Potter says. “It fits together really nicely.”
doi:10.1126/science.aay2891
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The more we learn it seems the less we know about the origins of American Indians. Every new discovery leads to old theories being tossed and a ''new'' theory taking it's place.
Now this is really interesting...Another discovery in the same area...
Are they connected. Are Native Americans part of this group of newly discovered people...
Unknown Group of Ancient Humans Once Lived in Siberia, New Evidence Reveals
That's the beauty of science.
Interesting indeed.
Interesting. That is the way it is going.
If I understand correctly, this re-substantiates the wave, after wave, after wave theory.
This is an interesting division between the ancient Siberians and The American Natives, unless something has changed recently.
Namely, the weapons and hunting tools. One key factor which is, often used as a gauge in determining relationships and or, forks in a road.
For example the Siberians are noted for their serrated spear or arrow "points" made by embedding contiguous small shards of stone flakes into grooves cut into, say,a conical piece of ivory, bone, or even wood, which is different than what is commonly found in North America.
Though some "Clovis" type point(s) have been found in Siberia under layers of volcanic ash. However, the dating of the points to 8,300 yr BP, which is curiously close to the 8,200 yr BP global cooling event (interesting topic in itself). Nonetheless, this timing allows for more than enough time for a reverse migration and when some theories behind the 8,200 yr BP cooling event, a reverse migration could be understandable.
It all points to a "gee there were a couple migrations" perspective.
May the new discoveries continue.
I believe that to be true and also not all were from across the Bering Strait..Some from the Pacific/Polynesia were involved.
The discovery of ''Montana Boy'' and his DNA made the connection between modern day natives and the Clovis people.
Absolutely
So that land bridge thingy wasn't real until just now? Seems I recall learning about it in grade school 50 years ago.
The land bridge theory has been around for decades...It has been changed as to the dates/time frame and how the peoples disbursed throughout the continent.
Part of that includes the ''kelp highway'' movement of some of the peoples via water down the west coast of the U.S. There is a lot of evidence of that as well.
Indeed it is Gordy. That and the advances in radar/drones have discovered total civilizations that were unknown to us just a few short years ago.
For the time being I'm sticking with my nookomis and misnomis (grandmother and grandfather) theory...
''We have always been here''...
Never argue with your grandparents..LOL
You don't have to tell me twice!
Very interesting update of information. Thank you for sharing it with us Kavika.
You're welcome RW.
Seems to me that the more we learn, the less we know.
Ain't that the truth.
Totally cool info Kavika. I am not shocked though to find out that man came to NA over 40,000 years ago. Now at least, there is proof!
What is interesting is that the date keeps moving back and back in time. From 6,000 years ago (eurocentric) to where we are at today.
The discovery of whole civilizations that were totally unknown until the last few years in Central and South America...
It's an exciting time for discoveries.
Not to mention the 150,000 "potential" evidence of human habitation outside of San Diego.
That is really going to be interesting. Just imagine if the settling of the Americas was moved back 150,000 years.
You will never convince the Young Earth Creationists.
LOL, probably not.
Dear Brother Kavika:
Great article.
Please keep them coming.
P&AB.
E.
Thanks niijii.
It's a pretty exciting time for discoveries in the Americas.
Piecing together the bits of our history is fascinating. It is amazing the kind of information we are capable of discerning nowadays.
Some of the recent discoveries using drones/radar etc have been amazing. Complete civilizations that we were totally unaware of that numbered in the hundreds of thousands of people.
The lost cities/civilizations of Central and South Ameirca over the last few years are astounding.
And then, once found, imagine all we can discover from the DNA.
Exactly. When you add in the study of linguistics to the mix the results can be amazing.
Most linguists have said for decades that Native Americans have been in North America for a minimum of 50,000 years. This based on how language is developed and spread.
Fun stuff.
Excellent point, language evolves too and thus imparts substantial knowledge including insight into their culture.
It's an exciting time, each new discovery opens up numerous new questions...