1
|
Willerslev E, Meltzer DJ. Peopling of the Americas as inferred from ancient genomics. Nature 2021; 594:356-364. [PMID: 34135521 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03499-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
In less than a decade, analyses of ancient genomes have transformed our understanding of the Indigenous peopling and population history of the Americas. These studies have shown that this history, which began in the late Pleistocene epoch and continued episodically into the Holocene epoch, was far more complex than previously thought. It is now evident that the initial dispersal involved the movement from northeast Asia of distinct and previously unknown populations, including some for whom there are no currently known descendants. The first peoples, once south of the continental ice sheets, spread widely, expanded rapidly and branched into multiple populations. Their descendants-over the next fifteen millennia-experienced varying degrees of isolation, admixture, continuity and replacement, and their genomes help to illuminate the relationships among major subgroups of Native American populations. Notably, all ancient individuals in the Americas, save for later-arriving Arctic peoples, are more closely related to contemporary Indigenous American individuals than to any other population elsewhere, which challenges the claim-which is based on anatomical evidence-that there was an early, non-Native American population in the Americas. Here we review the patterns revealed by ancient genomics that help to shed light on the past peoples who created the archaeological landscape, and together lead to deeper insights into the population and cultural history of the Americas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eske Willerslev
- GeoGenetics Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. .,Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. .,Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK.
| | - David J Meltzer
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. .,Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
The timing and effect of the earliest human arrivals in North America. Nature 2020; 584:93-97. [PMID: 32699413 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2491-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2019] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The peopling of the Americas marks a major expansion of humans across the planet. However, questions regarding the timing and mechanisms of this dispersal remain, and the previously accepted model (termed 'Clovis-first')-suggesting that the first inhabitants of the Americas were linked with the Clovis tradition, a complex marked by distinctive fluted lithic points1-has been effectively refuted. Here we analyse chronometric data from 42 North American and Beringian archaeological sites using a Bayesian age modelling approach, and use the resulting chronological framework to elucidate spatiotemporal patterns of human dispersal. We then integrate these patterns with the available genetic and climatic evidence. The data obtained show that humans were probably present before, during and immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum (about 26.5-19 thousand years ago)2,3 but that more widespread occupation began during a period of abrupt warming, Greenland Interstadial 1 (about 14.7-12.9 thousand years before AD 2000)4. We also identify the near-synchronous commencement of Beringian, Clovis and Western Stemmed cultural traditions, and an overlap of each with the last dates for the appearance of 18 now-extinct faunal genera. Our analysis suggests that the widespread expansion of humans through North America was a key factor in the extinction of large terrestrial mammals.
Collapse
|
3
|
Waters MR. Late Pleistocene exploration and settlement of the Americas by modern humans. SCIENCE (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2020; 365:365/6449/eaat5447. [PMID: 31296740 DOI: 10.1126/science.aat5447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
North and South America were the last continents to be explored and settled by modern humans at the end of the Pleistocene. Genetic data, derived from contemporary populations and ancient individuals, show that the first Americans originated from Asia and after several population splits moved south of the continental ice sheets that covered Canada sometime between ~17.5 and ~14.6 thousand years (ka) ago. Archaeological evidence shows that geographically dispersed populations lived successfully, using biface, blade, and osseous technologies, in multiple places in North and South America between ~15.5 and ~14 ka ago. Regional archaeological complexes emerged by at least ~13 ka ago in North America and ~12.9 ka ago in South America. Current genetic and archaeological data do not support an earlier (pre-17.5 ka ago) occupation of the Americas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael R Waters
- Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Szathmáry EJE, Zegura SL, Hammer MF. Exceeding Hrdlička's aims: 100 Years of genetics in anthropology. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2018; 165:754-776. [PMID: 29574830 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2017] [Revised: 12/21/2017] [Accepted: 12/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Emőke J E Szathmáry
- Department of Anthropology, St. Paul's College, University of Manitoba, 70 Dysart Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2M6, Canada
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
5
|
O'Brien MJ, Buchanan B. Cultural learning and the Clovis colonization of North America. Evol Anthropol 2018; 26:270-284. [PMID: 29265661 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/20/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The timing of the earliest colonization of North America is debatable, but what is not at issue is the point of origin of the early colonists: Humans entered the continent from Beringia and then made their way south along or near the Pacific Coast and/or through a corridor that ran between the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets in western North America. At some point, they abandoned their Arctic-based tool complex for one more adapted to an entirely different environment. That new techno-complex is termed "Clovis"; its dispersal allows us to examine, at a fine scale, how colonization processes played out across a vast continent that at the time had, at best, a very small resident population. Clovis has figured prominently in American archeology since the first Clovis points were identified in eastern New Mexico in the 1930s. However, the successful marriage of learning models grounded in evolutionary theory and modern analytical methods that began roughly a decade ago has begun to pay significant dividends in terms of what we know about the rapid spread of human groups across the last sizable landmass to witness human occupation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael J O'Brien
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Texas A&M University-San Antonio.,Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri
| | | |
Collapse
|
6
|
Raff J. Genetics: Ancient DNA Clarifies Population Histories of the Northeastern Margin of North America. Curr Biol 2017; 27:R1116-R1118. [PMID: 29065293 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
A new study of ancient mitochondrial DNA from Newfoundland and Labrador indicates that this region at the northeastern margin of North America was populated three times in succession by different indigenous groups. This research helps shed light on the movement of populations across the continent, following the initial peopling of the Americas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Raff
- Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Mulligan CJ, Szathmáry EJ. The peopling of the Americas and the origin of the Beringian occupation model. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2017; 162:403-408. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2016] [Revised: 11/16/2016] [Accepted: 11/30/2016] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Connie J. Mulligan
- Department of Anthropology; Genetics Institute, University of Florida; Gainesville Florida 32610-3610
| | - Emőke J.E. Szathmáry
- Department of Anthropology; University of Manitoba; Winnipeg Manitoba Canada R3T 2M6
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Skoglund P, Reich D. A genomic view of the peopling of the Americas. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2016; 41:27-35. [PMID: 27507099 PMCID: PMC5161672 DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2016.06.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2016] [Revised: 06/23/2016] [Accepted: 06/25/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Whole-genome studies have documented that most Native American ancestry stems from a single population that diversified within the continent more than twelve thousand years ago. However, this shared ancestry hides a more complex history whereby at least four distinct streams of Eurasian migration have contributed to present-day and prehistoric Native American populations. Whole genome studies enhanced by technological breakthroughs in ancient DNA now provide evidence of a sequence of events involving initial migrations from a structured Northeast Asian source population with differential relatedness to present-day Australasian populations, followed by a divergence into northern and southern Native American lineages. During the Holocene, new migrations from Asia introduced the Saqqaq/Dorset Paleoeskimo population to the North American Arctic ∼4500 years ago, ancestry that is potentially connected with ancestry found in Athabaskan-speakers today. This was then followed by a major new population turnover in the high Arctic involving Thule-related peoples who are the ancestors of present-day Inuit. We highlight several open questions that could be addressed through future genomic research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pontus Skoglund
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Archaeology and Classical History, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - David Reich
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Bolnick DA, Raff JA, Springs LC, Reynolds AW, Miró-Herrans AT. Native American Genomics and Population Histories. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-100036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Studies of Native American genetic diversity and population history have been transformed over the last decade by important developments in anthropological genetics. During this time, researchers have adopted new DNA technologies and computational approaches for analyzing genomic data, and they have become increasingly sensitive to the views of research participants and communities. As new methods are applied to long-standing questions, and as more research is conducted in collaboration with indigenous communities, we are gaining new insights into the history and diversity of indigenous populations. This review discusses the recent methodological advances and genetic studies that have improved our understanding of Native American genomics and population histories. We synthesize current knowledge about Native American genomic variation and build a model of population history in the Americas. We also discuss the broader implications of this research for anthropology and related disciplines, and we highlight challenges and other considerations for future research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Deborah A. Bolnick
- Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712;, , ,
- Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Jennifer A. Raff
- Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7556
| | - Lauren C. Springs
- Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712;, , ,
| | - Austin W. Reynolds
- Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712;, , ,
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Aida T. Miró-Herrans
- Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712;, , ,
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Hoffecker JF, Elias SA, O'Rourke DH, Scott GR, Bigelow NH. Beringia and the global dispersal of modern humans. Evol Anthropol 2016; 25:64-78. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 119] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
|
11
|
|