Chinese team traces ‘ghost ancestors' of modern Tibetans to Yunnan province
Chinese scientists have traced the origins of the 'ghost ancestors' of modern Tibetans to the southwestern province of Yunnan through analysis of
ancient DNA
Advertisement
The origins of people living on the
Tibetan Plateau – and how their ancestors migrated, adapted and settled in this cold, oxygen-poor land – have long been a mystery to the academic community.
Now, in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on Friday, a group of Chinese palaeontologists have verified a hypothesis that academics had speculated about but failed to test: an
archaeological site in central Yunnan is one of the origins of populations on the Tibetan Plateau.
'This study not only fills a critical gap in the genetic data of prehistoric populations in East and Southeast Asia, but also identifies one of the Tibetan Plateau's 'ghost ancestors' for the first time from a genetic perspective,' the authors said.
It is widely known that around 80 per cent of the genetic composition of Tibetan Plateau populations originates from northern
Chinese populations dating back 9,500 to 4,000 years ago. Yet the origin of the remaining 20 per cent remains unknown, and is referred to as 'ghost ancestry' by the academic community.
To decipher the secret, scientists from various Chinese institutions, including the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IVPP), the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Sichuan University set their sights on Yunnan.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
30 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Mongolia's prime minister resigns amid corruption claims after losing confidence vote
Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene resigned on Tuesday, a parliamentary statement said, after losing a confidence vote among lawmakers. Advertisement The secret ballot followed days of protests in the capital Ulaanbaatar against alleged corruption. Speaking after the result of the vote was announced to parliament, Oyun-Erdene said: 'It was an honour to serve my country and people in times of difficulties, including pandemics, wars, and tariffs.' He will remain as caretaker prime minister until his successor is appointed within 30 days. People sing during a protest in Ulaanbaatar on May 21 calling for the resignation of Mongolia's Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene. Photo: AFP Mongolia , a landlocked democracy in northern Asia, has battled deep-seated corruption for decades.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Wolves in Japan: could their reintroduction restore nature's balance?
A plan to reintroduce wolves to Japan more than a century after they were hunted to extinction is gaining traction as conservationists warn that the country's rural ecosystems are increasingly out of balance and costly to maintain due to booming wild animal populations. The Japan Wolf Association (JWA), established in 1993, argues that returning wolves to the wild could restore natural order in the countryside and help curb the billions of yen in agricultural damage caused each year by deer, wild boar and monkeys. The group is preparing small-scale reintroduction trials in remote regions and downplaying risks to human communities – but not everyone is convinced it's a wise move, given wolves' fearsome reputation. Kunihiko Otsuki, JWA president and heads of a timber company in central Japan's Nara prefecture, is convinced that reintroducing the apex predator is the right course of action. 'Wolves went extinct in Japan more than 100 years ago but now deer have become a huge problem for farming communities across the country,' he told This Week in Asia. 'They eat crops and the natural vegetation in the mountains, and we believe reintroducing wolves would help bring the natural balance back.' Japanese farmers also have to put up with troops of marauding monkeys that can quickly lay waste to particularly appealing crops, as well as boars that dig up root vegetables.
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
US Indo-Pacific commander calls PLA operations in Taiwan Strait ‘rehearsals', not just exercises
The top US commander in the Pacific said on Monday that Beijing was on a 'dangerous course' and its operations around Taiwan were not mere exercises, but 'rehearsals'. Advertisement 'We face a profoundly consequential time in the Indo-Pacific. China is on a dangerous course,' said Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific Command, in a special address to an AI expo hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project think tank. 'Their aggressive manoeuvres around Taiwan are not just exercises. They are rehearsals,' he continued, without explicitly referencing a potential takeover of Taiwan. Beijing regards the self-ruled island as part of China, to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take it by force and is committed to arming it. In recent years, the US has grown increasingly anxious about a mainland takeover, with officials and lawmakers eyeing 2027 as a possible window, and pointing to more frequent People's Liberation Army sorties that cross the Taiwan Strait's median line as signs of growing aggression. Advertisement Tensions between Taiwan and mainland China have also grown in the year since Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing has called a 'destroyer of peace', took office. Without naming specific countries, Paparo said on Monday that China's aggression was compounded by 'a growing transactional symbiosis among an axis of autocracies,' evidenced by 'technology transfers and coordinated military activities'.
