Ancient DNA links Europe to America

[Loki]

Ancient DNA from Siberian boy links Europe and America (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25020958)

Scientists have mapped the genome of a four-year-old boy who died in south-central Siberia 24,000 years ago.

It is the oldest modern human genome sequenced to date, researchers report in the journal Nature.

The results provide a window into the origins of Native Americans, whose ancestors crossed from Siberia into the New World during the last Ice Age.

They suggest about a third of Native American ancestry came from an ancient population related to Europeans.

Analysing the genes of present-day populations can only tell us so much about the past because traces of ancient movements have been overwritten many times.

So studying the DNA from ancient remains is becoming a powerful tool for disentangling the numerous waves of migration that produced the genetic patterns seen in people today.

The burial of an Upper Palaeolithic Siberian boy was discovered along with numerous artefacts in the 1920s by Russian archaeologists near the village of Mal'ta, along the Belaya river.

"With these remains of a young kid were all sorts of cultural items, one of which was a Venus figurine," lead researcher Eske Willerslev, from the University of Copenhagen, told the Nature podcast.

"These Venus figurines are found all the way west of this area into Europe."

Dr Willerslev and a colleague obtained a sample from the boy's arm bone, extracted DNA and compared it with that of present-day populations.

"When we sequenced this genome, something strange appeared," he explained. "Parts of the genome you find today in western Eurasians, other parts of the genome you find today in Native Americans - and are unique today to Native Americans."

DNA from the boy's Y chromosome and from the mitochondria (the cell's batteries) were of types found today in a region encompassing Europe, West and South Asia and North Africa, but rare or absent in Central Asia, East Asia and the Americas.

The researchers estimate that 14-38% of the ancestry of Native Americans traces to a population like the one living at Mal'ta 24,000 years ago.

But the most puzzling part of this finding was that the boy showed no clear affinities with East Asian populations such as the Chinese, Koreans or Japanese.

Today's Native Americans are most closely related to East Asians, so the scientists had to work out how the Mal'ta boy could be related to indigenous Americans, but not to East Asians.

The most likely scenario, they argue, is that a population like the one living in Siberia 24,000 years ago mixed with the ancestors of East Asians at some point after the boy died.

"Native Americans are composed of the meeting of two populations - an East Asian group and these Mal'ta west Eurasian populations," said Dr Willerslev. However, it remains unclear where this mixing took place.

"It could have happened in the Old World, somewhere in Siberia obviously. Or, in principle, it could also have happened in the New World," he explained.

"The most direct way to address this question would be to genome sequence some of the early skeletons from the Americas. If they already have the mixture of East Asians and the Mal'ta then we know it happened before that."

The research could help explain some long-standing anomalies in the study of Native American origins.

For example, some early American skeletons - such as the 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man from Washington State - bear physical features that, according to some, are typical of Europeans, and unlike those of modern Native American groups or East Asians.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

It's also got australoid DNA. The america europe link was basically know before but the australoid link is pretty strange.

My theory is that there's been expansions from south and central asia since dawn of time which then get wiped out to varying degrees by the next expansion, over and over.

[Smeagol]

Yes, modern Native Americans are an ancient mixed race population, and Kennewick man was Caucasoid.

[Smeagol]

Old World sources of the first New World human inhabitants: A comparative craniofacial view
C. Loring Brace*†,
A. Russell Nelson*‡,
Noriko Seguchi*,
Hiroaki Oe§,
Leslie Sering*,
Pan Qifeng¶,
Li Yongyi‖, and
Dashtseveg Tumen**

Author Affiliations

Communicated by Kent V. Flannery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Abstract

Human craniofacial data were used to assess the similarities and differences between recent and prehistoric Old World samples, and between these samples and a similar representation of samples from the New World. The data were analyzed by the neighbor-joining clustering procedure, assisted by bootstrapping and by canonical discriminant analysis score plots. The first entrants to the Western Hemisphere of maybe 15,000 years ago gave rise to the continuing native inhabitants south of the U.S.--Canadian border. These show no close association with any known mainland Asian population. Instead they show ties to the Ainu of Hokkaido and their Jomon predecessors in prehistoric Japan and to the Polynesians of remote Oceania. All of these also have ties to the Pleistocene and recent inhabitants of Europe and may represent an extension from a Late Pleistocene continuum of people across the northern fringe of the Old World. With roots in both the northwest and the northeast, these people can be described as Eurasian. The route of entry to the New World was at the northwestern edge. In contrast, the Inuit (Eskimo), the Aleut, and the Na-Dene speakers who had penetrated as far as the American Southwest within the last 1,000 years show more similarities to the mainland populations of East Asia. Although both the earlier and later arrivals in the New World show a mixture of traits characteristic of the northern edge of Old World occupation and the Chinese core of mainland Asia, the proportion of the latter is greater for the more recent entrants.

Prehistoric and Recent Components of East Asia Compared with the Rest of the Old World.

A brief test of such expectations is shown by the placement of the Late Pleistocene samples at both the western and the eastern ends of the Old World when they are compared with the regional representatives used in Fig. 1. To give a fuller representation of the living human form at the eastern edge of the Old World, Mongols from north central East Asia, Southeast Asians, and Ainus off the northeast edge of the continent were added to produce the pattern of resemblances and differences shown in Fig. 2. The Late Pleistocene sample from eastern Asia was made up of one individual from just under 30,000 years ago at the Upper Cave at Zhoukoudian just west of Beijing, China (27), and two individuals of just under 20,000 years ago at Minatogawa, Okinawa (52, 53). The sample is very small and consists of males only, so the groups used to construct Fig. 2 were restricted to males from each of the populations represented. The added Mongol and Southeast Asian samples cluster with the Chinese samples used in Fig. 1, but the East Asian Pleistocene and the Ainu samples cluster with the European Upper Paleolithic and latterly with modern Europe itself before showing any linkage with the rest of the world.

Comparison of Late Pleistocene and Recent Components of East Asia and the Northwestern Part of the Old World.

Because the configurations represented in Africa, South Asia, and Australia/Melanesia are never linked with European, Asian, Oceanic, or New World samples, they were removed from the analyses when Oceanic and Western Hemisphere groups were being compared with the Old World. Fig. 3 shows the linkages and distinctions made when northern samples from Europe, Mongolia, China, and the Ainu of Japan are compared with Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and prehistoric groups in both Europe (Upper Paleolithic) and Japan (Jomon). The prehistoric Jomon and the Ainu of Japan are actually closer to the prehistoric and living European groups than to the core populations of continental Asia. The Polynesians of Oceania are close to being in between the European and Asian ends of the spectrum. Along with the Ainu and the Jomon, they could be described as Eurasian.

The fact that Late Pleistocene populations in northwest Europe and northeast Asia show morphological similarities suggests that there may have been actual genetic ties at one time. Those morphological similarities can still be shown between Europe and the descendants of the aboriginal population of the Japanese archipelago, i.e., the Ainu. This similarity provides some basis for the long-time claim that the Ainu represent an "Indo-European," "Aryan," or "Caucasoid" "type" or "race" (54, 55), however unfortunate those designations and their implications may be.

[Maleficent]

This shouldn't be surprising. People within the genetical and anthropological world are well-aware that Ancient Amerindians and Ancient Northern Europeans were the same Mongoloid-like parent population from tens of thousands of years ago.

[StonyArabia]

Yes, modern Native Americans are an ancient mixed race population, and Kennewick man was Caucasoid.

No he was closer to the Ainu. Some Native Americans do resemble the Ainu like them hairy and are bearded. If native Americans are mixed race then why the hell they can't grow beards the most of them.

[Smeagol]

This shouldn't be surprising. People within the genetical and anthropological world are well-aware that Ancient Amerindians and Ancient Northern Europeans were the same Mongoloid-like parent population from tens of thousands of years ago.

No, it's the opposite, they both come from a Caucasoid population. Caucasoids are older than Mongolids.

[Smeagol]

No he was closer to the Ainu. Some Native Americans do resemble the Ainu like them hairy and are bearded. If native Americans are mixed race then why the hell they can't grow beards the most of them.

Read the study I posted, The Ainu, and Jomon show more similarities to Europeans, than East Asians, but the Ainu today have some Mongolid admixture from mixing with Japanese.

[Gaston]

No, it's the opposite, they both come from a Caucasoid population. Caucasoids are older than Mongolids.

No, it shows North Eurasia was inhabited by a mixed populations that contributed to both Native Americans and Europeans.

[Maleficent]

No, it's the opposite, they both come from a Caucasoid population. Caucasoids are older than Mongolids.

No they both derive from an 'Amerindian-like' population. It was pre-Caucasoid and pre-Mongoloid.

[Smeagol]

No they both derive from an 'Amerindian-like' population. It was pre-Caucasoid and pre-Mongoloid.

Amerindians are a mix, which can especially be seen when looking at the Silvids, and Pacifids. There is hardly any Mongolid admixture in Europe, and it's confined to northeastern Europe. As for Kennewick man, he was Caucasoid.

[blogen]

No, it's the opposite, they both come from a Caucasoid population. Caucasoids are older than Mongolids.

This was the origin of the races:
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/815/6kf9.jpg

based on the genetics:
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/2092/llcy.jpg
source (http://www.humpopgenfudan.cn/p/A/A1.pdf)

[Argang]

This fellow isn't really "caucasoid", he plots between euros and native americans/siberians in a PCA, but has little relation (Figure C, closest relatives in red) to West Asians and South Europeans, a bit more to North and East Europeans and some Siberians (Kets) and most to Native Americans. He's more related to Greenland Eskimos than to any Europeans.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Va8sH8ho66k/Uo0OKBpX4fI/AAAAAAAAJZo/RLd9i4JYpv4/s1600/pca.png

[Argang]

Admixture analysis at K=3 and to a lesser degree K=4 makes Mal'ta look like some East European populations (Mari and Chuvash), but at K=9 and K=10 it's clear he doesn't resemble any single current population but has South Asian (Green), Northeast European (Dark Blue) and Amerindian/Arctic (Orange and Pink) affinities.

http://oi39.tinypic.com/11bsxl3.jpg

[Fire Haired]

"The most likely scenario, they argue, is that a population like the one living in Siberia 24,000 years ago mixed with the ancestors of East Asians at some point after the boy died.

"Native Americans are composed of the meeting of two populations - an East Asian group and these Mal'ta west Eurasian populations," said Dr Willerslev. However, it remains unclear where this mixing took place."

I made a thread about this too(click here (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?102904-Palaeloithic-Siberians-full-DNA-results)) read it if you want to know my opinion on this.

I don't understand this. Native Americans mtDNA is under east Asian(A, B, C, D) with a tiny bit of west Eurasian(X2) and under east Asian Q and subclades of y DNA C. Besides mtDNA X there is no evidence of west Eurasian maternal or paternal lineages in Native Americans. There are two 14,300 year old mtDNA samples in north America, and one 10,300 year old Y DNA and mtDNA sample. All fell under exclusively Native American haplogroups. Until there is evidence the strangely not very Mongoloid skeletal remains in America where like Mal'ta boys I wont believe it.

In K=9 Mal'ta boy had some what seemed to be Native American like ancestry. Which should be related to east Asian types but I am no expert in that so I don't know what the story is with K=9. I do know in other autosomal DNA tests the native American group is more related to east Asian and Siberian groups than any other.

[noman.rasheed]

http://rt.com/files/news/21/38/50/00/baikal.si.jpg

The anthropological world was stunned when the recent genome study of the 24,000-year-old remains of a small Siberian boy revealed that the child was both part-Western European and modern Native American.

This turns on its head the long-held notion that those who first settled the Americas (themselves descendants of Siberian populations) were related to East Asians, as well as raising questions as to when the Americas were first settled – and by which peoples. New evidence gleaned from the three-year-old Mal’ta boy found near Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia shows that the ancient Native Americans could in fact be a mixture between West Europeans and an ancient East Asian people, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

The study demonstrates that as much as 30 percent of this brown-haired, freckled boy’s DNA can be found in modern Native Americans, which suggests that their modern population came directly from Siberia.

The boy’s body was discovered by Russian archaeologists in the 1920s, lying under a slab of rock, wearing ancient jewelry – an ivory diadem, a bird-shaped pendant and a bead necklace – all of which point to an Upper Paleolithic European culture. Some figurines were found at the site as well.

All of this was excavated by the scientists and studied for two decades, then subsequently stored in museums in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

But a team led by Danish ancient DNA expert, Eske Willersley, from the University of Copenhagen, recently got to work trying to find a direct connection between East Asia and the American Indians. The resulting research was published in the journal Nature on November 20.

Willersley set about extracting mitochondrial DNA from the boy’s arm, but was underwhelmed when it turned out to belong to the U lineage – which means modern Europeans who settled on the continent over 44,000 years ago. The lineages common to Native Americans are A, B, C, D and X.

But having analyzed the so-called nuclear genome, which carries more evidence of our ancestry, he told AFP that "the result came as a complete surprise to us."

Firstly, the boy was from all over Europe: the two examined genomes show that modern Europeans had traveled much father into Eurasia than we had previously assumed.

Kelly Graf, an assistant professor at the Center for the Study of First Americans and Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M, who helped Willersley in his research, told Science Daily that the find “shows he had close genetic ties to today's Native Americans and some western Eurasians… Also, he shared close genetic ties with other Ice-Age western Eurasians living in European Russia, Czech Republic and even Germany. We think these Ice-Age people were quite mobile and capable of maintaining a far-reaching gene pool that extended from central Siberia all the way west to central Europe."

Secondly, the Native American connection was finally found.

"Our study proves that Native Americans’ ancestors migrated to the Americas from Siberia and not directly from Europe as some have recently suggested," Graf said. This sort of intricate and complete DNA mapping of a human is the oldest of its kind ever performed.

However, given the boy’s European-Native-American mix, it was strange that the boy had no connection to modern East Asians. This has led Willersley and his team to suppose that the ancient Native Americans had already broken off ties with the East Asians before interbreeding with the Mal’ta people, to whom the boy belongs.

This population must then have traveled over the frozen Beringian land bridge that used to be between Siberia and Alaska. This consequently resulted in the creation of the modern Native Americans.

Intriguingly, even these new groundbreaking discoveries don’t fully solve all the remaining puzzles.

For one, ancient Native American skulls look more European than modern ones. And another one is that the X lineage found in modern Native Americans sometimes occurs in Europeans as well.

Also, the exact time and place of the mixing – whatever combination it was – cannot yet be determined. Likewise, the bigger question that this inevitably leads to is when the American continent was first settled.

They can be answered in time, but will require dipping into a much more ancient DNA pool. However, we now know that Siberia is an ancient treasure trove that holds the secrets to how Americans and Europeans interbred and settled thousands of years ago.

http://rt.com/news/archaeological-siberian-american-european-069/

[Pure ja]

No, it's the opposite, they both come from a Caucasoid population. Caucasoids are older than Mongolids.

A mix of pre-caucasoid and pre-mongoloid. Pre-caucasoid in Europe is highest among southern baltic-finnics (estonians, livonians) and balts. That baltic subregion has "south-asian" (malayan? caucasian?) as the next largest admix. Whatever that "south-asian" was, it arrived earlier than the "paleo-siberian" admix (via samoyeds?) which reached maris, but not estonians and lithuanians. And that (or similar) "south asian" was also present already in the Mal'ta specimen. So, based on the K9, the most similar to Mal'ta seems to be lithuanians, then estonians, then mordovians, then russians. And to preempt the indo-european grab, it looks more like the european uralics ie. finno-ugrics have the best fit with Mal'ta, which should not be a surprise, because uralics are a less-differentiated mix of pre-caucasoid and pre-mongoloid + a later paleo-siberian addition. Lithuanians just have to accept that they are (if not directly, then covertly) the descendants of swiderians, who were most certainly not indo-europeans, but more likely some sort of western uralics.

[Neanderthal]

I believe there was probably several waves of immigration to America; proto-Eurasian, Southeast-Asian and then Eurasian, wich might explain why some North America Indians have so many non-Mongoloid traits (long/narrow faces, thin noses, narrow skulls, etc.)

Also there was Austronesian immigration to the Souther Cone from Eastern Island and surroundings. It doesn't take to be a scientist to notice how Pampids, Lagids and Fuegids archaic features are Austronesian influenced.

Science will prove this through DNA in a future, in the meantime, only romantics believe Amerindians are just only one contingent of people who crossed the Bering Strait.

[Smeagol]

wich might explain why some North America Indians have so many non-Mongoloid traits (long/narrow faces, thin noses, narrow skulls, etc.)

These aren't exactly non-Mongolid traits. The Nordsinid races of China, Korea, and Japan can have them.

[Neanderthal]

These aren't exactly non-Mongolid traits. The Nordsinid races of China, Korea, and Japan can have them.

Indeed, but not as accentuated:

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/000243288/polls_runningantelope_3132_658077_answer_1_xlarge. jpeg

http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/images/cherokee-indian-picture.jpg

[rashka]

These aren't exactly non-Mongolid traits. The Nordsinid races of China, Korea, and Japan can have them.

When they do it is because they have some old European blood in them.

[Smeagol]

When they do it is because they have some old European blood in them.

Wrong.

[Gaston]

People should stop using racial terms such as mongoloid, caucasoid, negroid etc when it comes to the interpretation of dna analyses because EVERYBODY is mixed today and it was already the case 24.000 years ago with this mixed individual that is Mal'ta boy.

[Cleitus]

No he was closer to the Ainu. Some Native Americans do resemble the Ainu like them hairy and are bearded. If native Americans are mixed race then why the hell they can't grow beards the most of them.

Native Americans cant even Grow Beards.

[papa diddy pop]

"The most likely scenario, they argue, is that a population like the one living in Siberia 24,000 years ago mixed with the ancestors of East Asians at some point after the boy died.

"Native Americans are composed of the meeting of two populations - an East Asian group and these Mal'ta west Eurasian populations," said Dr Willerslev. However, it remains unclear where this mixing took place."

I made a thread about this too(click here (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?102904-Palaeloithic-Siberians-full-DNA-results)) read it if you want to know my opinion on this.

I don't understand this. Native Americans mtDNA is under east Asian(A, B, C, D) with a tiny bit of west Eurasian(X2) and under east Asian Q and subclades of y DNA C. Besides mtDNA X there is no evidence of west Eurasian maternal or paternal lineages in Native Americans. There are two 14,300 year old mtDNA samples in north America, and one 10,300 year old Y DNA and mtDNA sample. All fell under exclusively Native American haplogroups. Until there is evidence the strangely not very Mongoloid skeletal remains in America where like Mal'ta boys I wont believe it.

In K=9 Mal'ta boy had some what seemed to be Native American like ancestry. Which should be related to east Asian types but I am no expert in that so I don't know what the story is with K=9. I do know in other autosomal DNA tests the native American group is more related to east Asian and Siberian groups than any other.

Q and R are closely related on the Y-dna tree.

[Loki]

People should stop using racial terms such as mongoloid, caucasoid, negroid etc when it comes to the interpretation of dna analyses because EVERYBODY is mixed today and it was already the case 24.000 years ago with this mixed individual that is Mal'ta boy.

I guess you have a point.

[istripador]

I believe there was probably several waves of immigration to America; proto-Eurasian, Southeast-Asian and then Eurasian, wich might explain why some North America Indians have so many non-Mongoloid traits (long/narrow faces, thin noses, narrow skulls, etc.)

Also there was Austronesian immigration to the Souther Cone from Eastern Island and surroundings. It doesn't take to be a scientist to notice how Pampids, Lagids and Fuegids archaic features are Austronesian influenced.

Science will prove this through DNA in a future, in the meantime, only romantics believe Amerindians are just only one contingent of people who crossed the Bering Strait.

not have any data in another immigration to south america that not come from the north america, and Brazil is not in the Southern Cone

[Neanderthal]

not have any data in another immigration to south america that not come from the north america, and Brazil is not in the Southern Cone

Exactly, we don't have enough evidence yet, it's impossible to prove such claims without anthropology and further DNA analysis. But it will be proven in due time.

Wasn't talking about Brazil anyway, rather Chile-Argentina.

[istripador]

Exactly, we don't have enough evidence yet, it's impossible to prove such claims without anthropology and further DNA analysis. But it will be proven in due time.

Wasn't talking about Brazil anyway, rather Chile-Argentina.

lagids are native to the central areas of the Brazil,you do claim without evidence

[Neanderthal]

lagids are native to the central areas of the Brazil,you do claim without evidence


LAGID

Indianid type. Medium to small, moderately stocky dolicho-mesocephals native to the mountainous areas of southeastern Brazil, southern Chile (and at much lower frequency) in Argentina, Paraguay and the Brazilian jungle. The Lagid type is characterized by strong supraorbital bulge, a skeletally robust face and broad cheekbones, and an absence of clear facial flatness. The eyelids are narrow, but there are few obvious Mongolid eye features. The nose is broad, straight or concave, with a clearly retracted root, the hair is smooth or wavy and the skin is light brown with a yellow or coppery tone. The absorption of a local australiform strain, the presence of which predates the Mongolid immigration, may be involved (cf. Luzia).


Ok. :)

[istripador]

[QUOTE=Neanderthal;2120248]Ok. :)[/QUO


this is a theory without any proof

[Neanderthal]

[QUOTE=Neanderthal;2120248]Ok. :)[/QUO


this is a theory without any proof

Yes, indeed, I agree with you, I just told you. Why you seek conflict? You strike me as being angry all the time, why?

[d3cimat3d]

People should stop using racial terms such as mongoloid, caucasoid, negroid etc when it comes to the interpretation of dna analyses because EVERYBODY is mixed today and it was already the case 24.000 years ago with this mixed individual that is Mal'ta boy.

The Mal'ta boy wasn't really mixed but rather a common ancestor of both Europeans and American Indians, that's the proper way of looking at it I think. The computer algorithm just split him this way because it doesn't know how to deal with an archaic North-Eurasian. The Neanderthal DNA also generated weird results and registered mostly as west-African. To me the most surprising part of the Mal'ta results are that the Caucasoid element in Tuvans and etc. might have been around since 25,000 BC rather than migrations from Europe 5,000 years ago like the majority believe - including me up until now.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

lagids are native to the central areas of the Brazil,you do claim without evidence

There were people in SA who spoke same language as on easter Island, they are extinct now. You just do not know all that much.

There's also ancient carvings of bearded men in many of the civilizations. Clearly some of the native americans could. Everything wasn't always cannibals south of mexican border, that's just how it was when spanishs howed up.

[istripador]

There were people in SA who spoke same language as on easter Island, they are extinct now. You just do not know all that much.

There's also ancient carvings of bearded men in many of the civilizations. Clearly some of the native americans could. Everything wasn't always cannibals south of mexican border, that's just how it was when spanishs howed up.

show me your source? and mexico is part of north america not south america,united states and canada together did not reach 2 millions of native

[Prisoner Of Ice]

show me your source? and mexico is part of north america not south america,united states and canada together did not reach 2 millions of native

I don't care enough to find it but they talked about it in a big paper on genetic study. If you don't even know this much though you really are talking out your ass this is not some wild new revelation here....

[istripador]

I don't care enough to find it but they talked about it in a big paper on genetic study. If you don't even know this much though you really are talking out your ass this is not some wild new revelation here....

genetic studies did not detect nothing in the South American Indians!Only an extinct Brazilian tribe had some similar gene with indigenous Polynesians

[Gaston]

The Mal'ta boy wasn't really mixed but rather a common ancestor of both Europeans and American Indians, that's the proper way of looking at it I think. The computer algorithm just split him this way because it doesn't know how to deal with an archaic North-Eurasian. The Neanderthal DNA also generated weird results and registered mostly as west-African. To me the most surprising part of the Mal'ta results are that the Caucasoid element in Tuvans and etc. might have been around since 25,000 BC rather than migrations from Europe 5,000 years ago like the majority believe - including me up until now.

While there is truth in this - the algorithm is trying to assign modern clusters on Paleolithic people while it should be the other way around, the intermediate position between East and West Eurasians is clear.
My point is still valide anyway, talking about modern phenotypes and applying them to ancient people is bullshit, especially since paleolithic people often were very different from the people living at the same place today and because modern populations are even more mixed.