"Ancient Beringians: 11,500-Year-Old Genome Reveals" Topic

…. Previously Unknown Native American Population

"It is widely accepted that the earliest settlers crossed from Eurasia into Alaska via an ancient land bridge spanning the Bering Strait which was submerged at the end of the last Ice Age.

Issues such as whether there was one founding group or several, when they arrived, and what happened next, are the subject of debate, however.

In the new study, researchers sequenced the full genome of an infant – a girl named Xach'itee'aanenh T'eede Gaay (Sunrise Child-girl) by the local Native community – whose remains were found at the Upward Sun River site in 2013.

To their surprise, the scientists found that although Xach'itee'aanenh T'eede Gaay had lived around 11,500 years ago, long after people first arrived in the region, her genetic information did not match either of the two recognized branches of early Native Americans, which are referred to as Northern and Southern…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Lucy, Otzi, and now these … when did we start giving personal names to specimens or to the remains of unfortunate people we really know nothing about?

And, most importantly, why? As part of media/publicity stunts?

As for these remains, I wonder if they are in some way related to those of "Kennewick Man", or some larger genetic group exterminated by the ancestors of today's Native Americans.

Dan
Viva Beringia! Viva Doggerland! :)
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I would hazard that as with Kennewick Man the results of the DNA testing will be reburied post-haste.

Amazing.

Proof that we know less than we think we do about pre-history…

I think there's still a lot of exciting evidence to be discovered.

What people sometimes forget is that North America was connected by ice to both Siberia and Europe.

In other words, I think that Siberians and Europeans had already met up long ago in North America, during the last Ice Age, and that they did what humans always do when they meet with strangers … clash, trade, interbreed … but mostly clash over resources.

I'd sure love to know if there's any fossil DNA evidence of when the European wolves and North American ones last had contact. I have a feeling that bit could be relevant somehow to support a secondary migration route from Europe.

I think the proof is closely linked to the migratory land animals and sea mammals that we followed for food and fur, and to the animals that followed us from kill site to kill site (predators and scavengers).

Dan

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

As for these remains, I wonder if they are in some way related to those of "Kennewick Man", or some larger genetic group exterminated by the ancestors of today's Native Americans.

Kennewick Man was a Native Indian (of the Northern branch), and the Upward Sun River remains are genetically from prior to the split into two branches.

From the article:
"The genome of Xach'itee'aanenh T'eede Gaay shows that Ancient Beringians were isolated from the common, ancestral Native American population, both before the Northern and Southern divide, and after the ancestral source population was itself isolated from other groups in Asia."

Abstract of Terminal Pleistocene Alaskan genome reveals first founding population of Native Americans:
"USR1 is most closely related to Native Americans, but falls basal to all previously sequenced contemporary and ancient Native Americans."
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