DNA Sheds Light On Mystery About Where Native Americans Came From
A new study of mitochondrial DNA has found evidence for at least two migrations between the Americas, China, and Japan, during the last Ice Age and following melt period.
The team traced a rare Native American founder lineage across the continents and time, looking at mitochondrial DNA passed down through females. Using 100,000 modern-day and 15,000 ancient samples, the team was able to identify 216 contemporary and 39 ancient individuals that shared the lineage, mapping its branching paths using carbon dating and comparing mutations picked up along the way.
“The Asian ancestry of Native Americans is more complicated than previously indicated,” molecular anthropologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yu-Chun Li, said in a statement. “In addition to previously described ancestral sources in Siberia, Australo-Melanesia, and Southeast Asia, we show that northern coastal China also contributed to the gene pool of Native Americans.”
According to the team, the first "radiation event" (migration event) took place between 19,500 and 26,000 years ago, while the cold conditions in northern coastal China were inhospitable to humans. The second took place between 19,000 and 11,500 years ago, as the human population in the world expanded and explored during better climactic conditions. Surprisingly, in both cases, they believe the ancient humans made their way to the Americas via the Pacific coast, rather than the Bering Land Bridge – dry land that connected Siberia and Alaska during the last Ice Age – as has been hypothesized.
https://www.iflscience.com/dna-sheds-light-on-mystery-about-where-native-americans-came-from-68832
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