Studies Find Genetic Signature of Native Australians In the Americas

Applehu Akbar writes: Two new research papers claim to have found an Australo-Melanesian DNA signal in the genetic makeup of Native Americans, dating to about the time of the last glacial maximum. This may move the speculation around the Clovis people and Kennewick man to an entirely new level. Let's hope that it at least shakes loose some more funding for North American archaeology. Ars reports: "The exact process by which humanity introduced itself to the Americas has always been controversial. While there's general agreement on the most important migration—across the Bering land bridge at the end of the last ice age—there's a lot of arguing over the details. Now, two new papers clarify some of the bigger picture but also introduce a new wrinkle: there's DNA from the distant Pacific floating around in the genomes of Native Americans. And the two groups disagree about how it got there."

Comments

Re:Drifters

[Anonymous Coward]

Not likely a source of a native population though. There was a study a few years ago and they came up with a number that was (from memory) around 80+ people required to start a colony and successfully grow. Also keep in mind that women tend not to be in fishing boats, especially not in equal number to men. A colony was more likely started after an accidental discovery later followed by a deliberate journey to colonize.

Related information:
http://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask113

No.

[ScentCone]

The study actually shows that the Americas and Australia each have inhabitants with DNA in common ... because both places were wandered to from elsewhere in Asia. It's not Aussie DNA in the Americans, it's the same Asian DNA in Australia and the Americas.