The oldest genome from the Americas has recently been sequenced in order to determine when the continent's first occupants arrived and in how many migrations. The genome belongs to an 11,500 year old infant whose family most likely subsisted by hunting big game and gathering various plants in the Beringia region of upper Alaska. Researchers discovered that this infant is not directly related to modern Native American groups, rather, the two most likely shared a common ancestor from a population that migrated across Beringia roughly 25,000 years ago. Researchers postulate that this population most likely split roughly 21,000 years ago with one group staying in Beringia--from which the infant is descended from, and one group setting off to explore the Americas--from which modern Native Americans are descended from. Additionally, researchers discovered that the infant was equally related to both the northern and southern genetic subgroups of Native Americans suggesting that there was only one migration into the Americas. The complete genome sequencing of the infant sheds light onto a decades-old debate.
You can find the link to the Science article here or the link to the original article published in Nature here
Leanne Chambers
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