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6,000-year-old mystery skeletons could rewrite human history
A collection of 6,000-year-old skeletons have been discovered in Colombia that do not match any indigenous human population in the region.
Archaeologists believe the remains of hunter gatherers, discovered at theChecua site near the country's capital of Bogotá, could shine a fresh light on human history.
Analysis of DNA of the 21 skeletons which date from 500 to 6,000 years ago has helped piece together how the unique genetic structure of the earliest beings to live in South America disappeared from later populations.
Seven of the specimans were from the Checua period, while nine were from the later Herrera period around 2,000 years ago.
A further three remains dated from the Muisca period, around 1,200 to 500 years and the last two were around 530 years old and from the Guane populations north of Bogotá.
The study has found that the Checuan individuals did not share genetic with any other ancient groups, either in surrounding countries such as Brazil or Chile, or in North America.
Lead author and PhD student at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution in Germany, Kim-Louise Krettek, said that the findings show that there was a complete exchange in population in the Bogotá Altiplano highlands around 2,000 years ago.
The Checua population was entirely replaced by those with DNA resembling ancient Panamanians and modern Chibchan-speaking groups from Costa Rica and Panama.
Scholars still debate when the first humans arrived in South America, with evidence of life in Monte Verde II, iChile, as far back as 14,550 years ago.
The new arrivals in the Bogotá Altiplano marked the beginning of the Herrera period around 2,800 years ago, with the tradition known for farming and pottery.
Andrea Casas-Vargas, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and co-author of the study, said the complete erasure of a unique genetic lineage is rare in South America, where DNA continuity has been observed over long periods of time.
She added that branches of the languages spoken by the immigrant Central American population who replaced the Checuans remain in use.
But researchers believe the population change came about gradually by migration and cultural exchange rather than a military invasion, MailOnline reported.
Further unknown populations may remain undiscovered and unexcavated, scientists believe, with the latest breakthrough possibly just the tip of the iceberg.
Surrounding areas such as western Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela have yet to be genetically analysed. More Trending
'Questions about history and origins touch upon a sensitive area of the self-perception and identity of the Indigenous population', said Professor Cosimo Prosth.
As technology and research advances, more information is being uncovered about human history.
In Indonesia, fragments of a human ancestor's skull dating back to 140,000 years were discovered among the sea floor.
The skull fossil belonging to the Homo erectrus revealed that the human predecessor might have co-existed along its modern human relatives longer than has been thought.
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