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Ancient DNA Reveals a Completely Unknown Population of Native Americans (sciencealert.com)
schwit1 shares the findings of a new study of 11,500-year-old bones: Sunrise girl-child ("Xach'itee'aanenh T'eede Gaay") lived some 11,500 years ago in what is now called Alaska, and her ancient DNA reveals not only the origins of Native American society, but reminds the world of a whole population of people forgotten by history millennia ago. "We didn't know this population existed," says anthropologist Ben Potter from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this newly revealed people to our understanding of how ancient populations came to inhabit the Americas." In a new study published this week, the team reports that a genetic analysis of sunrise girl-child's DNA shows she belonged to a forgotten people called the Ancient Beringians, unknown to science until now. Before now, there were only two recognized branches of early Native Americans (referred to as Northern and Southern). But when the researchers sequenced sunrise girl-child's genome -- the earliest complete genetic profile of a New World human to date -- to their surprise it matched neither.
Given the nature of this field of research -- and the scope of the new findings -- it's unlikely the new hypotheses will remain uncontested for long. But in the light of all the new evidence researchers are uncovering, it's clear the first settlers of America carried a more diverse lineage than we ever realized. "[This is] the first direct evidence of the initial founding Native American population," Potter says. "It is markedly more complex than we thought." The findings are reported in the journal Nature.
Given the nature of this field of research -- and the scope of the new findings -- it's unlikely the new hypotheses will remain uncontested for long. But in the light of all the new evidence researchers are uncovering, it's clear the first settlers of America carried a more diverse lineage than we ever realized. "[This is] the first direct evidence of the initial founding Native American population," Potter says. "It is markedly more complex than we thought." The findings are reported in the journal Nature.
Sent a DNA sample to ancestry.com for my family tree, they sent back an envelope of seeds with a note "start over".
sigh
This seems to be a solid confirmation of that third wave, but not actually a 'new' discovery.
The DNA in the two girls' remains does not show up in extant native American populations, so they are more likely to represent a dead end rather than a "wave".
So, are these what they call the Clovis or "pre-Clovis" people or are we talking way before them? We visited a Clovis site in New Mexico this summer, and they were a fascinating culture who hunted mammoths. If I remember correctly, they also died out, so are considered a "dead end".
You are welcome on my lawn.
two recognized branches of early Native Americans (referred to as Northern and Southern)
North American is best American!
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
So, are these what they call the Clovis or "pre-Clovis" people or are we talking way before them?
It is unlikely they are Clovis. The Clovis people are genetic ancestors of Native Americans, while the girls in TFA are not. Also, the Clovis people lived in Montana and New Mexico about 13 kya, while these girls lived in Alaska 11.5 kya, so they likely arrived from Siberia after the Clovis migration.
She is from a group that came to the area she was found 5-15,000 years before she lived.
She is related to modern groups, but from before they split. She is definitely pre-Clovis from a genetic perspective. It shows that Clovis people did not likely supersede the people in Central Beringia, but developed after having migrated out.
Also, perhaps the second wave passed through Beringia as travelers or refuges, not as conquerors, since they had large numbers but didn't displace the early wave. So not only did the "pause" happen, but the pause culture was likely very strong and outlasted the second migration, perhaps lasted until the local conditions changed. The first wave left Siberia ~10k years before they expanded down into North America from Beringia, and the second wave came through not that long after first came down. So there is overlap between all these groups.
Because we suspected that they existed, and because we knew that Beringia existed. Names had been coined.
Also, we don't know what they were called, Ancient Beringians is what they are called.
The summary and title of course are clickbait and should be ignored. The key phrase isn't "completely unknown" but "previously unproven."
So, are these what they call the Clovis or "pre-Clovis" people or are we talking way before them? We visited a Clovis site in New Mexico this summer, and they were a fascinating culture who hunted mammoths. If I remember correctly, they also died out, so are considered a "dead end".
Judging by the date these are a hitherto unknown group of 'Clovis' people but Clovis is more of a cultural and temporal designation than a genetic one. Clovis (oversimplifying here) is currently a label that is stuck on any group inhabiting the Americas between ~15.000-11.000 years ago and that used a particular style of cultural artefacts and (mostly) their stone tools (because stone tools and garbage piles is usually all we ever find). Thus Clovis is a cultural grouping that does not map directly to a distinct genetic population any more than all modern humans who use claw hammers, wrenches, files, soldering irons, ... etc belong to the same genetically distinct population since humans readily adopt new cultures and abandon old ones if they see an advantage in it. Walk the streets of Tokyo or Shanghai, and you won't see many people in Edo or Qing dynasty period clothes. The locals have all abandoned their traditional clothing culture for European/American style clothing culture for the most part while we here in America/Europe have supplemented much of our food culture with Oriental food culture.
The majority of the early Native Americans were of Asian descent while a smaller group among them may have come from a population in Siberia with some genetic affinity to populations that settled Europe but that population has died out in Asia and was swamped by later immigration waves in Europe. If I'm understanding this correctly the early settlers of N-America split into two populations with one group staying in Beringia while the rest migrated into N-America where that group then split once again into the distinct northern and southern branches of Native-Americans. The Beringians were then later swamped or absorbed by immigration waves coming back up into Canada and Alaska from the south out of North America. What is interesting about these results is firstly that they indicate a single settlement wave that gave rise to all modern Native American populations and that the DNA seems to indicate immigration into the northern most parts of North America began over 20.000 years ago. This can either mean those people were pre-Clovis if they used that tool culture or alternatively that Clovis can be pushed back to over 20.000 years ago just like 'Ötsi' the ice mummy found in the Alps some years ago pushed back the beginning of the copper age in Europe by about a thousand years.
Those DNA-testing companies sell more con than science.
That’s what Inside Edition discovered when they had a set of triplets send their saliva to Ancestry.com and 23andMe for DNA testing. Although the triplets all came from the same womb, they got wildly different results from both companies. The DNA test results had the triplets differing from each other by more than 10%, which is a greater difference than the 7% genetic difference between humans and monkeys, the 3.1% difference in DNA between humans and orangutans, and the 1.2% difference between humans and chimps. (See “Animals That Share Human DNA Sequences“)
Indeed, genetics experts say the DNA-testing companies prey on gullible people by pinpointing your biological origins on a map with spurious specificity:
Anthropologist Deborah Bolnick of the University of Texas at Austin calls “fraudulent” companies that claim DNA testing will tell you where you came from.
Anthropologist Jonathan Marks of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, says that instead of tracing our genetic past, what we get is a scientific scam: “It sure looks like science. Well, it is science. It’s done by scientists, and it’s done on DNA samples. And it produces real data.” But these companies simply don’t have enough comparative information to pinpoint a gene on a world map.
Morgan not only confirms what the anthropologists say — that the DNA tests are not as accurate and precise as they are claimed to be — he also reveals other problems, such as test results being “tweaked” to conform with the customer’s expectations because “It pays to suck up to the people who pay you,” and test samples being contaminated because the customers sent their saliva mixed with other substances, such as food or saliva from another person.
Most egregiously, Morgan also confides that his DNA testing company has faked African ancestry for customers deemed to be racists:
“I only know of two times somebody wanted to be tested for being another ethnicity because they didn’t like that ethnicity. Both times, [they were] white people not wanting to believe they had black ancestors. []
[W]hat we did was add ‘ That way we weren’t lying, and they [the “racist’ customers] would both be wondering how much under a percentage point was. We always try to round to the nearest number because we sometimes hear about percentage points, but for them, we leave it open to whether it’s a one or a zero. []
[One customer] wrote to us asking what that meant, and we wrote back that it meant it was under 1 percent. And we were not saying zero. Unless they got another test, that was going to bother them. Maybe they weren’t 100 percent Caucasian [] this way it leaves it open, and they’ll always be wondering.“
Apparently it is news to people that the Irish have Semitic and North African admixture, that Slavs are a quarter Asian, and that all of Southern Europe is shot through with Mediterranean outliers.
Alternative Right.
If that's the case after just 1,000 years, it seems quite reasonable that many, many, more lines would have existed and died out in the preceeding 10,000 or so. Especially if you were to start factoring in the more tribal nature of communities and the increased susceptibility to famine, disease, conflict, natural disasters, and so on that results.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Apparently it is news to people that the Irish have Semitic and North African admixture
This is true even of their traditional languages. Irish is Indo-European, while Semitic languages are in the unrelated Afro-Asiatic family. Yet the Celtic languages of Britain and Ireland share several key grammatical features with Semitic languages. Perhaps these features were shared alongside the mixture of genes.