DNA from ancient population in Southern China suggests Native Americans' East Asian roots:
For the first time, researchers successfully sequenced the genome of ancient human fossils from the Late Pleistocene in southern China. The data, published July 14 in the journal Current Biology, suggests that the mysterious hominin belonged to an extinct maternal branch of modern humans that might have contributed to the origin of Native Americans.
"Ancient DNA technique is a really powerful tool," Su says. "It tells us quite definitively that the Red Deer Cave people were modern humans instead of an archaic species, such as Neanderthals or Denisovans, despite their unusual morphological features," he says.
The researchers compared the genome of these fossils to that of people from around the world. They found that the bones belonged to an individual that was linked deeply to the East Asian ancestry of Native Americans. Combined with previous research data, this finding led the team to propose that some of the southern East Asia people had traveled north along the coastline of present-day eastern China through Japan and reached Siberia tens of thousands of years ago. They then crossed the Bering Strait between the continents of Asia and North America and became the first people to arrive in the New World.
[...] "Such data will not only help us paint a more complete picture of how our ancestors migrate but also contain important information about how humans change their physical appearance by adapting to local environments over time, such as the variations in skin color in response to changes in sunlight exposure," Su says.
Journal Reference:
Xiaoming Zhang, Xueping Ji, Chunmei Li, Tingyu Yang, et al., A Late Pleistocene human genome from Southwest China [open], Current Biology, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.016
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday July 18 2022, @11:14AM (5 children)
So it's ok again to call them Indian?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 18 2022, @11:33AM
Actually, I think the story says they are early immigrants. Or First Wave Immigrants. But, you may have a hard time calling them, because the phone coverage on the reservations is poor.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Monday July 18 2022, @01:30PM (3 children)
Typical. It all used to be American and now just about everything is Made in China.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Monday July 18 2022, @01:32PM (2 children)
Argh, hit "Submit" too early, it should have continued with:
Personally I blame Biden, he was around in the late Pleistocene when all this started.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18 2022, @03:14PM
(Score: 3, Touché) by Opportunist on Monday July 18 2022, @04:14PM
It's kinda sad when Soviet jokes work in the free world. This one used to be the staple in the 1980s:
What was succession in Czarist times like?
Power was transfered from grandfather to grandson.
What is succession in communist times like?
Power is transfered from grandfather to grandfather.
And sadly, that's by far not the only one that works on today's "free" world politics...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18 2022, @12:16PM (1 child)
Expect China to claim Alaska is actually Chinese territory (as the migration happened over a frozen - or dry land - Bering Strait).
They certainly do with Southern China Sea .
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18 2022, @11:08PM
Nations are no longer genetically based, so immigration does not matter so much.
(Score: 1) by jman on Wednesday July 20 2022, @01:36PM
This has always been plainly clear to me. Look at a Mongol, an Inuit, and a Mayan. Similar body structure. Sure, it took awhile for folks to walk up what is now Eastern Russia, across the frozen Bering Straight, then down what is now Western US, but hey, thanks to reproduction, we've got the time! Given sea travel, we can even make it to Hawaii, Samoa, Way Down Under... Just takes more time.
On a separate note, it's very sad that some adherents of Judeo-Christian religion have tainted the word "breed". All the other mammals have breeds, but we seem to shy away from the idea that humans do, as well. Just 'cause you're different, doesn't make you worse.
One day, we'll piece together a little better how the earlier hominids merged into what we now call "human".