1
|
Scott GR, Navega D, Vlemincq-Mendieta T, Dern LL, O'Rourke DH, Hlusko LJ, Hoffecker JF. Peopling of the Americas: A new approach to assessing dental morphological variation in Asian and Native American populations. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2025; 186:e24878. [PMID: 38018312 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Revised: 10/24/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Through biodistance analyses, anthropologists have used dental morphology to elucidate how people moved into and throughout the Americas. Here, we apply a method that focuses on individuals rather than sample frequencies through the application rASUDAS2, based on a naïve Bayes' algorithm. MATERIALS AND METHODS Using the database of C.G. Turner II, we calculated the probability that an individual could be assigned to one of seven biogeographic groups (American Arctic, North & South America, East Asia, Southeast Asia & Polynesia, Australo-Melanesia, Western Eurasia, & Sub-Saharan Africa) through rASUDAS2. The frequency of classifications for each biogeographic group was determined for 1418 individuals from six regions across Asia and the Americas. RESULTS Southeast Asians show mixed assignments but rarely to American Arctic or "American Indian." East Asians are assigned to East Asia half the time while 30% are assigned as Native American. People from the American Arctic and North & South America are assigned to Arctic America or non-Arctic America 75%-80% of the time, with 10%-15% classified as East Asian. DISCUSSION All Native American groups have a similar degree of morphological affinity to East Asia, as 10%-15% are classified as East Asian. East Asians are classified as Native American in 30% of cases. Individuals in the Western Hemisphere are decreasingly classified as Arctic the farther south they are located. Equivalent levels of classification as East Asian across all Native American groups suggests one divergence between East Asians and the population ancestral to all Native Americans. Non-arctic Native American groups are derived from the Arctic population, which represents the Native American founder group.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- G Richard Scott
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, Nevada, USA
| | - David Navega
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
| | | | - Laresa L Dern
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, Nevada, USA
| | - Dennis H O'Rourke
- Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
| | | | - John F Hoffecker
- Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wooller MJ, Saulnier-Talbot É, Potter BA, Belmecheri S, Bigelow N, Choy K, Cwynar LC, Davies K, Graham RW, Kurek J, Langdon P, Medeiros A, Rawcliffe R, Wang Y, Williams JW. A new terrestrial palaeoenvironmental record from the Bering Land Bridge and context for human dispersal. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2018; 5:180145. [PMID: 30110451 PMCID: PMC6030284 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2018] [Accepted: 05/01/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Palaeoenvironmental records from the now-submerged Bering Land Bridge (BLB) covering the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present are needed to document changing environments and connections with the dispersal of humans into North America. Moreover, terrestrially based records of environmental changes are needed in close proximity to the re-establishment of circulation between Pacific and Atlantic Oceans following the end of the last glaciation to test palaeo-climate models for the high latitudes. We present the first terrestrial temperature and hydrologic reconstructions from the LGM to the present from the BLB's south-central margin. We find that the timing of the earliest unequivocal human dispersals into Alaska, based on archaeological evidence, corresponds with a shift to warmer/wetter conditions on the BLB between 14 700 and 13 500 years ago associated with the early Bølling/Allerød interstadial (BA). These environmental changes could have provided the impetus for eastward human dispersal at that time, from Western or central Beringia after a protracted human population standstill. Our data indicate substantial climate-induced environmental changes on the BLB since the LGM, which would potentially have had significant influences on megafaunal and human biogeography in the region.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J. Wooller
- Water and Environmental Research Center, Institute of Northern Engineering, Fairbanks, AK, USA
- Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Émilie Saulnier-Talbot
- Water and Environmental Research Center, Institute of Northern Engineering, Fairbanks, AK, USA
- Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | | | - Soumaya Belmecheri
- Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Nancy Bigelow
- Alaska Quaternary Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Kyungcheol Choy
- Water and Environmental Research Center, Institute of Northern Engineering, Fairbanks, AK, USA
- Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Les C. Cwynar
- Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
| | - Kimberley Davies
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, UK
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK
| | - Russell W. Graham
- Department of Geosciences and Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Joshua Kurek
- Department of Geography and Environment, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada
| | - Peter Langdon
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, UK
| | | | - Ruth Rawcliffe
- Water and Environmental Research Center, Institute of Northern Engineering, Fairbanks, AK, USA
- Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Yue Wang
- Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - John W. Williams
- Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Abstract
Understanding the population dynamics of megafauna that inhabited the mammoth steppe provides insights into the causes of extinctions during both the terminal Pleistocene and today. Our study area is Alaska's North Slope, a place where humans were rare when these extinctions occurred. After developing a statistical approach to remove the age artifacts caused by radiocarbon calibration from a large series of dated megafaunal bones, we compare the temporal patterns of bone abundance with climate records. Megafaunal abundance tracked ice age climate, peaking during transitions from cold to warm periods. These results suggest that a defining characteristic of the mammoth steppe was its temporal instability and imply that regional extinctions followed by population reestablishment from distant refugia were characteristic features of ice-age biogeography at high latitudes. It follows that long-distance dispersal was crucial for the long-term persistence of megafaunal species living in the Arctic. Such dispersal was only possible when their rapidly shifting range lands were geographically interconnected. The end of the last ice age was fatally unique because the geographic ranges of arctic megafauna became permanently fragmented after stable, interglacial climate engendered the spread of peatlands at the same time that rising sea level severed former dispersal routes.
Collapse
|
4
|
Rapid coastal spread of First Americans: novel insights from South America's Southern Cone mitochondrial genomes. Genome Res 2012; 22:811-20. [PMID: 22333566 PMCID: PMC3337427 DOI: 10.1101/gr.131722.111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
It is now widely agreed that the Native American founders originated from a Beringian source population ∼15–18 thousand years ago (kya) and rapidly populated all of the New World, probably mainly following the Pacific coastal route. However, details about the migration into the Americas and the routes pursued on the continent still remain unresolved, despite numerous genetic, archaeological, and linguistic investigations. To examine the pioneering peopling phase of the South American continent, we screened literature and mtDNA databases and identified two novel mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) clades, here named D1g and D1j, within the pan-American haplogroup D1. They both show overall rare occurrences but local high frequencies, and are essentially restricted to populations from the Southern Cone of South America (Chile and Argentina). We selected and completely sequenced 43 D1g and D1j mtDNA genomes applying highest quality standards. Molecular and phylogeographic analyses revealed extensive variation within each of the two clades and possibly distinct dispersal patterns. Their age estimates agree with the dating of the earliest archaeological sites in South America and indicate that the Paleo-Indian spread along the entire longitude of the American double continent might have taken even <2000 yr. This study confirms that major sampling and sequencing efforts are mandatory for uncovering all of the most basal variation in the Native American mtDNA haplogroups and for clarification of Paleo-Indian migrations, by targeting, if possible, both the general mixed population of national states and autochthonous Native American groups, especially in South America.
Collapse
|
5
|
Volodko NV, Starikovskaya EB, Mazunin IO, Eltsov NP, Naidenko PV, Wallace DC, Sukernik RI. Mitochondrial genome diversity in arctic Siberians, with particular reference to the evolutionary history of Beringia and Pleistocenic peopling of the Americas. Am J Hum Genet 2008; 82:1084-100. [PMID: 18452887 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.03.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2008] [Revised: 03/07/2008] [Accepted: 03/11/2008] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Through extended survey of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity in the Nganasan, Yukaghir, Chuvantsi, Chukchi, Siberian Eskimos, and Commander Aleuts, we filled important gaps in previously unidentified internal sequence variation within haplogroups A, C, and D, three of five (A-D and X) canonical mtDNA lineages that defined Pleistocenic extension from the Old to the New World. Overall, 515 mtDNA samples were analyzed via high-resolution SNP analysis and then complete sequencing of the 84 mtDNAs. A comparison of the data thus obtained with published complete sequences has resulted in the most parsimonious phylogenetic structure of mtDNA evolution in Siberia-Beringia. Our data suggest that although the latest inhabitants of Beringia are well genetically reflected in the Chukchi-, Eskimo-Aleut-, and Na-Dene-speaking Indians, the direct ancestors of the Paleosiberian-speaking Yukaghir are primarily drawn from the southern belt of Siberia when environmental conditions changed, permitting recolonization the high arctic since early Postglacial. This study further confirms that (1) Alaska seems to be the ancestral homeland of haplogroup A2 originating in situ approximately 16.0 thousand years ago (kya), (2) an additional founding lineage for Native American D, termed here D10, arose approximately 17.0 kya in what is now the Russian Far East and eventually spread northward along the North Pacific Rim. The maintenance of two refugial sources, in the Altai-Sayan and mid-lower Amur, during the last glacial maximum appears to be at odds with the interpretation of limited founding mtDNA lineages populating the Americas as a single migration.
Collapse
|
6
|
Starikovskaya EB, Sukernik RI, Derbeneva OA, Volodko NV, Ruiz-Pesini E, Torroni A, Brown MD, Lott MT, Hosseini SH, Huoponen K, Wallace DC. Mitochondrial DNA diversity in indigenous populations of the southern extent of Siberia, and the origins of Native American haplogroups. Ann Hum Genet 2005; 69:67-89. [PMID: 15638829 PMCID: PMC3905771 DOI: 10.1046/j.1529-8817.2003.00127.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 121] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
In search of the ancestors of Native American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups, we analyzed the mtDNA of 531 individuals from nine indigenous populations in Siberia. All mtDNAs were subjected to high-resolution RFLP analysis, sequencing of the control-region hypervariable segment I (HVS-I), and surveyed for additional polymorphic markers in the coding region. Furthermore, the mtDNAs selected according to haplogroup/subhaplogroup status were completely sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses of the resulting data, combined with those from previously published Siberian arctic and sub-arctic populations, revealed that remnants of the ancient Siberian gene pool are still evident in Siberian populations, suggesting that the founding haplotypes of the Native American A-D branches originated in different parts of Siberia. Thus, lineage A complete sequences revealed in the Mansi of the Lower Ob and the Ket of the Lower Yenisei belong to A1, suggesting that A1 mtDNAs occasionally found in the remnants of hunting-gathering populations of northwestern and northern Siberia belonged to a common gene pool of the Siberian progenitors of Paleoindians. Moreover, lineage B1, which is the most closely related to the American B2, occurred in the Tubalar and Tuvan inhabiting the territory between the upper reaches of the Ob River in the west, to the Upper Yenisei region in the east. Finally, the sequence variants of haplogroups C and D, which are most similar to Native American C1 and D1, were detected in the Ulchi of the Lower Amur. Overall, our data suggest that the immediate ancestors of the Siberian/Beringian migrants who gave rise to ancient (pre-Clovis) Paleoindians have a common origin with aboriginal people of the area now designated the Altai-Sayan Upland, as well as the Lower Amur/Sea of Okhotsk region.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elena B. Starikovskaya
- Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk
| | - Rem I. Sukernik
- Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk
| | - Olga A. Derbeneva
- Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk
- Center for Molecular Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
| | - Natalia V. Volodko
- Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk
| | | | - Antonio Torroni
- Dipartimento di Genetica e Microbiologia, Universit di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Michael D. Brown
- Center for Molecular Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
- Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. Rem I. Sukernik Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences Novosibirsk 630090, Russian Federation, Phone: 383-2-30-53-20, Fax: 383-2-33-12-78
| | - Marie T. Lott
- Center for Molecular Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
| | | | - Kirsi Huoponen
- Department of Medical Genetics, University in Turku, Finland
| | | |
Collapse
|
7
|
STURM MATTHEW, SCHIMEL JOSH, MICHAELSON GARY, WELKER JEFFREYM, OBERBAUER STEVENF, LISTON GLENE, FAHNESTOCK JACE, ROMANOVSKY VLADIMIRE. Winter Biological Processes Could Help Convert Arctic Tundra to Shrubland. Bioscience 2005. [DOI: 10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0017:wbpchc]2.0.co;2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 487] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
|
8
|
|
9
|
Saillard J, Forster P, Lynnerup N, Bandelt HJ, Nørby S. mtDNA variation among Greenland Eskimos: the edge of the Beringian expansion. Am J Hum Genet 2000; 67:718-26. [PMID: 10924403 PMCID: PMC1287530 DOI: 10.1086/303038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 360] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2000] [Accepted: 07/12/2000] [Indexed: 11/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The Eskimo-Aleut language phylum is distributed from coastal Siberia across Alaska and Canada to Greenland and is well distinguished from the neighboring Na Dene languages. Genetically, however, the distinction between Na Dene and Eskimo-Aleut speakers is less clear. In order to improve the genetic characterization of Eskimos in general and Greenlanders in particular, we have sequenced hypervariable segment I (HVS-I) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region and typed relevant RFLP sites in the mtDNA of 82 Eskimos from Greenland. A comparison of our data with published sequences demonstrates major mtDNA types shared between Na Dene and Eskimo, indicating a common Beringian history within the Holocene. We further confirm the presence of an Eskimo-specific mtDNA subgroup characterized by nucleotide position 16265G within mtDNA group A2. This subgroup is found in all Eskimo groups analyzed so far and is estimated to have originated <3,000 years ago. A founder analysis of all Eskimo and Chukchi A2 types indicates that the Siberian and Greenland ancestral mtDNA pools separated around the time when the Neo-Eskimo culture emerged. The Greenland mtDNA types are a subset of the Alaskan mtDNA variation: they lack the groups D2 and D3 found in Siberia and Alaska and are exclusively A2 but at the same time lack the A2 root type. The data are in agreement with the view that the present Greenland Eskimos essentially descend from Alaskan Neo-Eskimos. European mtDNA types are absent in our Eskimo sample.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Juliette Saillard
- Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; and Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg
| | - Peter Forster
- Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; and Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg
| | - Niels Lynnerup
- Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; and Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg
| | - Hans-Jürgen Bandelt
- Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; and Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg
| | - Søren Nørby
- Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; and Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
|
11
|
|
12
|
Busch L. Alaska Sites Contend as Native Americans' First Stop. Science 1994; 264:347. [PMID: 17836896 DOI: 10.1126/science.264.5157.347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
|
13
|
|