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Peopling of the Americas as inferred from ancient genomics

Willerslev, Eske, Meltzer, David J.·2021·Nature
DOI 10.1038/s41586-021-03499-y
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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.

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Authors
Willerslev, E., & Meltzer, D. J.
ORCID
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2021-06-16
Volume
594
Issue
7863
Pages
356-364
ISSN
  • 0028-0836
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/s41586-021-03499-y
Cited by
131
References
15
Language
en
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