Abrand new paper published in Science (Elena S. Gusareva et al.,From North Asia to South America: Tracing the longest human migration through genomic sequencing. Science388,eadk5081. DOI:10.1126/science.adk5081) analyzed the DNA of different Native American and Siberian groups to understand the dynamics of how modern humans reached America.
It is a good effort, perhaps hampered by the constraints of orthodox science, with a far too recent date for my liking, for the presence of Humans in Siberia:
"The earliest known presence of modern humans in northern Eurasia at latitudes greater than 50°N was around 45,000 years ago (ya) in West Siberia, and by 31,600 ya, humans had migrated far east toward Beringia, north of the Arctic Circle at 71° N...
The migration of humans to the Americas occurred when the Bering Land Bridge was still open, with the earliest human remains in North America found in the Clovis burial site in western Montana dating back to around 12,700 ya. However, recent evidence suggests human presence in North America from at least 23,000 ya..."
Indeed, dates are far older than those mentioned in this paper, but we are confident that orthodoxy is beginning to accept an older date for the arrival of modern humans in America.
The paper states that:
"the divergence between northern and southern Native American populations is estimated to have occurred between 17,500 and 14,600 ya south of the North American ice sheets, according to modern and ancient genomic analyses. The rapid dispersal of humans in South America is suggested by archaeological records, which date the earliest human presence in North Patagonia, the southernmost tip of the Americas, to 14,500 ya
...
The demographic history has greatly influenced the Patagonian Kawésqar, whose ancestors migrated the farthest distance out of Africa. They have the smallest effective population size and one of the smallest genetic distances between community members. It has been reported that contemporary Native Patagonians (including the Kawésqar) show the highest genetic affinity to ancient Patagonian maritime individuals that lived 1000 ya, indicating genetic continuity in the region."
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Totally agree with your appreciations. This and also other attempts to try to trace ancient human migrations by genome sequencing may constitute remarkable, and also interesting works…However, the underlying question to be done should be; ¿How deep can genome sequencing “dig” into the Pleistocene, in order to infer human presence in America without unacceptable uncertainties…?... Because it seems evident that its currently limited scope (at least, up to now´s one) is unable to support human presence in America much beyond what orthodoxy is willing to accept up to now, that is; inmigration from North to South, with the earliest sites at the North, “perhaps” at LGM times…and later South America settlements, barely a little earlier ( 1 or 2 Ka, at most) than Monte Verde II (14,5 Ka) …but no more than this.
ReplyDeleteI believe that these alternative approaches not only are hampered by orthodoxy… but often, they appear to be closely tailored to its restrictive hypothesis…
In fact, the present paper seems unable to justify the clear evidence of human activity at 21 Ka in Argentina; (Del Papa M, De Los Reyes M, Poiré DG, Rascovan N, Jofré G, Delgado M (2024) Anthropic cut marks in extinct megafauna bones from the Pampean region (Argentina) close to the city of Buenos Aires, during the last glacial maximum. PLoS ONE 19(7): e0304956. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304956), recently posted in your blog…
Even so, speculations towards an earlier than currently accepted peopling of America are still growing, but as you point…at a low rate.
Best regards
Marcelo