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Daily Mirror
12 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'
