Early populations of humans in the Americas had the same ancestry as modern Native Americans, according to studies published today (November 8) in Cell and Science. The data dispel any ideas based on the skull shapes of a few ancient remains that early populations were not related to modern Native Americans and give more clues about the waves of people who migrated from North America to South America thousands of years ago.
The two studies combined analyzed the genomic data of more than 60 individuals who lived in the lands between Alaska and Patagonia 700 to 10,000 years ago. Because of the limited data prior to this work, “the [genetic] models that we’ve been using to explain the peopling of the Americas have always been oversimplified,” Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist at the University of Kansas in Lawrence who was not involved in the studies, tells Science. But adding genomes ...
