Latest news with #Kim-LouiseKrettek
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Science
- Daily Mirror
Scientists baffled after finding 6,000 year-old skeletons with no link to humans
The discovery, made in the Bogotá Altiplano of Colombia, has complicated the already-debated story of South America's first inhabitants - who were thought to have crossed from Siberia into North America A mysterious group of ancient hunter-gatherers has left researchers puzzled after DNA analysis revealed they were genetically unlike modern humans. The discovery, made in the Bogotá Altiplano of Colombia, has complicated the already-debated story of South America's first inhabitants. While some theories once proposed that humans reached the continent through transoceanic voyages from Africa or Australia, the dominant view holds that early settlers crossed from Siberia into North America via an Alaskan ice bridge roughly 20,000 years ago. From there, successive waves of migration are believed to have moved southward. The earliest confirmed human remains in South America, including 'Luzia' - a 12,000-year-old skeleton found in Brazil - show ancestry linked to this migration. A second wave of migrants arrived around 9,000 years ago, and a third about 5,000 years after that. However, Colombia, the gateway between Central and South America, has been largely overlooked in ancient DNA studies - until now. Researchers analysed the remains of 21 individuals buried across five archaeological sites in the Bogotá highlands, with skeletons dating from 6,000 to 500 years old. The results, published in the journal Science Advances, were unexpected. 'We show that the hunter-gatherer population from the Altiplano dated to around 6000 yr B.P. lack the genetic ancestry related to the Clovis-associated Anzick-1 genome and to ancient California Channel Island individuals,' the study reports. 'The analysed Preceramic individuals from Colombia do not share distinct affinity with any ancient or modern-day population from Central and South America studied to date.' This means the group that first settled the high plains around Bogotá did not descend from the Clovis people, nor did they contribute genetically to later South American populations. Their DNA appears unique - and then it disappears entirely. The group seems to have vanished roughly 2,000 years ago, possibly as a result of incoming migration. DNA evidence shows that by this time, a new population had taken over the region - one that brought with it agriculture, pottery, and Chibchan languages still spoken in parts of Central America today. 'The genes were not passed on,' said Kim-Louise Krettek of the University of Tübingen. 'That means in the area around Bogotá there was a complete exchange of the population.' This genetic turnover coincides with the cultural shift from the Preceramic period to the Herrera period. The study describes this as a 'seemingly complete replacement' of the region's original inhabitants. 'That genetic traces of the original population disappear completely is unusual,' added Andrea Casas-Vargas of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Metro
2 days ago
- Science
- Metro
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. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Colombian presidential candidate 'fighting for life' after being shot in the head MORE: Network of Victorian tunnels discovered under massive Surrey sinkhole MORE: Scientists reveal truth behind 'UFO' spotted in major city with 'cryptic message'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Ancient DNA reveals mysterious Indigenous group from Colombia that disappeared 2,000 years ago
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A new analysis of ancient DNA from hunter-gatherers who lived millennia to centuries ago has revealed a previously unknown genetic lineage of humans who lived in what is now Colombia. People of this lineage lived near present-day Bogotá around 6,000 years ago but disappeared around 4,000 years later, according to a study published May 28 in the journal Science Advances. The findings could shed light on major cultural changes that occurred during that time. It's thought that the first Americans journeyed along the Bering Land Bridge from Asia during the last ice age and arrived in North America at least 23,000 years ago, according to trackways found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. It's still debated when the first people arrived in South America, but there's evidence of people at the site of Monte Verde II, in Chile, from 14,550 years ago. Some of the early Indigenous people who reached South America settled in the Altiplano, a plateau near what is now Bogotá. This region underwent several cultural shifts during the Early and Middle Holocene (11,700 to 4,000 years ago), and researchers already knew about the development of a type of ceramic pottery that emerged during the Herrera period beginning about 2,800 years ago. But how this technology came to the area is still a matter of debate. To investigate ancient population movements in the region, researchers sequenced genomes using samples from the bones and teeth of 21 skeletons from five archaeological sites in the Altiplano spanning a period of 5,500 years. These included seven genomes from a site known as Checua dating back 6,000 years, nine from the Herrera period around 2,000 years ago, three from the Muisca period, whose remains date to 1,200 to 500 years ago, and two from Guane populations north of Bogotá about 530 years ago. "These are the first ancient human genomes from Colombia ever to be published," study co-author Cosimo Posth, a paleogeneticist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, said in a statement. The genomes from the Checua site belonged to a relatively small group of hunter-gatherers, the team found. Their DNA isn't particularly similar to that of Indigenous North American groups, nor to any ancient or modern populations in Central or South America. "Our results show that the Checua individuals derive from the earliest population that spread and differentiated across South America very rapidly," study co-author Kim-Louise Krettek, a doctoral student at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen, said in the statement. But some 4,000 years later, that population had completely vanished. Evidence of their DNA wasn't present in later groups who inhabited the region, either. "We couldn't find descendants of these early hunter-gatherers of the Colombian high plains — the genes were not passed on," Krettek said. "That means in the area around Bogotá there was a complete exchange of the population." The findings suggest that cultural changes that occurred at the start of the Herrera period, such as the more widespread use of ceramics, were brought into the region by migrating groups from Central America into South America sometime between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. "In addition to technological developments such as ceramics, the people of this second migration probably also brought the Chibchan languages into what is present-day Colombia," study co-author Andrea Casas-Vargas, a geneticist at the National University of Colombia, said in the statement. "Branches of this language family are still spoken in Central America today." Chibchan speakers were widespread in the Altiplano at the time of European contact, and genetic markers linked to people who spoke Chibchan languages first appeared there 2,000 years ago. RELATED STORIES —Newly discovered 'ghost' lineage linked to ancient mystery population in Tibet, DNA study finds —'Mystery population' of human ancestors gave us 20% of our genes and may have boosted our brain function —Unknown human lineage lived in 'Green Sahara' 7,000 years ago, ancient DNA reveals The Chibchan-related ancestry may have spread and mixed with other groups on multiple occasions. The genetic composition of later Altiplano individuals is more similar to that of pre-Hispanic individuals from Panama than to Indigenous Colombians, suggesting some mixing in Colombia. Ancient remains from Venezuela also carry some Chibchan-related ancestry, though they aren't as closely linked to ancient Colombians. This suggests the possibility of multiple Chibchan language expansions into South America. Future studies could involve sequencing more ancient genomes in the Altiplano and nearby regions, the researchers wrote in the study. Such research might help narrow down when Central American populations arrived in the region and how widespread they became.
