Recolonisation of Europe after the last ice age started earlier than previously thought
A study that appeared today on Current Biology sheds new light on the continental migrations which shaped the genetic background of all present Europeans.
The research generates new ancient DNA evidence and direct dating from a fragmentary fossil mandible belonging to an individual who lived ~17,000 years ago in northeastern Italy (Riparo Tagliente, Verona). The results backdate by about 3,000 years the diffusion in Southern Europe of a genetic component linked to Eastern Europe/Western Asia previously believed to have spread westwards during later major warming shifts.
“By looking into the past of this particular individual, who was one of the first settlers of the southern Alps after the Last Glacial peak, we found evidence that the previously documented genetic replacement which changed the makeup of Southern European Hunter Gatherers started at least 17,000 years ago,” said lead author Eugenio Bortolini (University of Bologna), “much earlier than we previously thought, and in a very different scenario”.
The ancient genome obtained at Riparo Tagliente is in fact of particular importance, “since it supports the persistence of exchange networks and the movement of people across southern Europe immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum, well before the onset of much warmer climatic shifts,” said Luca Pagani (University of Padova and Institute of Genomics of the University of Tartu), co-first author of the work.
More:
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/04/recolonisation-of-europe-after-the-last-ice-age-started-earlier-than-previously-thought/138784
