Latest news with #Preceramic
NDTV
6 hours ago
- Science
- NDTV
6,000-Year-Old Skeletons Have Distinctive DNA With No Link To Modern Humans
In a major archaeological breakthrough, scientists revealed that ancient human remains, unearthed in the Bogota Altiplano in central Colombia, do not match any indigenous human population in the region. The skeletons are 6,000 to 500 years old, and the study revealed that some of the individuals belonged to a previously unknown population. A team of researchers studied the genetic data of 21 individuals and published findings in the journal Science Advances in May. Earlier studies have revealed that two lineages existed - northern Native American and southern Native American. It developed when people started to move south after first arriving on the continent from Siberia. The southern Native American is further divided into at least three sub-lineages. However, scientists have yet to find the exact time and other details when the first people would have moved from Central America to South America. "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 noted. "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," the study added. "Colombia_Checua_6000BP can thus be modeled as a previously undescribed distinct lineage deriving from the radiation event that gave rise to multiple populations across South America during its initial settlement," it mentioned. The study author, Andrea Casas Vargas, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, told CNN on Wednesday (June 11) that the research team was "very surprised" with the findings. "We did not expect to find a lineage that had not been reported in other populations," Vargas added. Kim-Louise Krettek, lead author and a PhD student at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution in Germany, said, as quoted by Express UK, that this area is key to understanding "how the Americas were populated". "It was the land bridge between North and South America and the meeting point of three major cultural regions: Mesoamerica, Amazonia, and the Andes." Krettek added. The study is very important, Vargas said, adding that it is the first to sequence complete genomes in ancient samples from Colombia. Vargas said that the results raise questions "as to where they came from and why they disappeared. "We are not certain what happened at that time that caused their disappearance, whether it was due to environmental changes, or if they were replaced by other population groups," she said, further adding that more research will provide some answers, hopefully.
Daily Mirror
3 days 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.
