“That’s something we’ve suspected due to the archaeological findings,
but it’s fascinating to have it confirmed by the genetics,” said Meltzer in a
statement. “These findings imply that the first peoples were highly skilled at
moving rapidly across an utterly unfamiliar and empty landscape. They had a
whole continent to themselves and they were travelling great distances at
breathtaking speed.”
It’s highly unlikely that this population sailed from Australia or
Indonesia to South America. Rather, this group likely trekked northward from
their point of origin, venturing through China and Siberia. This population
likely didn’t spend too much time in North America, eventually finding their
way into South America, while leaving no genetic trace of their journey—aside
from this lone specimen in Lagoa Santa. Meltzer and Willerslev don’t know if
this population arrived before or after the ancestors of Native Americans. This
discovery now presents a very intriguing mystery, because this group could
conceivably be the first humans to reach South America.
This natural mummy was discovered in 1940 in Nevada’s Great Basin
Desert, and scientists have struggled to understand its origin. The Fallon
Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, a group of Native Americans living in Nevada near Spirit
Cave, said the remains belong to their ancestors; accordingly, they asked for
possession of the specimen under the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act. This request was denied as the origin of the Spirit Cave
Mummy was disputed, leading to a 20-year legal battle. The situation changed
two years ago when the tribe allowed Willerslev to conduct a DNA analysis on
the specimen. His analysis showed that the skeleton is indeed related to the
Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, quashing a longstanding theory that a group of
Paleoamericans existed in North America prior to Native Americans.
“It tells us that the peopling of Central and South America not only was
fast but also it was accompanied by multiple waves, some of which disappeared
and some others which left a strong genetic impact all the way until today.”
Ideally, the researchers would like to find DNA older than 11,000 years,
and also acquire DNA from regions in northern South America and the Caribbean,
which is absent in this study. The researchers aren’t sure how individuals in
these regions are related to the ones analyzed in the new study.
Sirak says that these Archaic people likely moved to the Caribbean from Central and South America, which the researchers determined through genetic comparisons with modern-day indigenous people in the Americas."We see that these people share more genetic similarity with presently people who live in Central and South America than they do with people who live in say Mesoamerica or North America," Sirak says.But around 2,300-2,500 years ago, the region begins transitioning into the Ceramic period, which we associate with the use of ceramics — like pottery.
Remarkably, the study challenges previous research in this area, which traced the origins of some ancient peoples in the Caribbean to North America. But researchers in this study found little support for the North American hypothesis.
