Early human dispersals within the Americas
Willerslev, Eske
- 1University of Copenhagen
- 2University of California System
- 3Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
- 4Technical University of Denmark
- 5University of Alaska System
- 6University of Ottawa
- 7University of Oxford
- 8University of Washington
- 9Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe
- 10Stswecemc Xgattem Band
- 11University of Oregon
- 12Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
- 13Canadian Museum Hist
- 14Equipo Argentino Antropol Forense
- 15
- 16National Geographic Society
- 17University of Texas System
- 18University of Cambridge
- 19Universidade de Sao Paulo
- 20Kansas State University
- 21Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
- 22University of Illinois System
- 23United States Department of the Interior
- 24Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Journal
Science
ISSN
0036-8075
1095-9203
Open Access
green
Volume
362
Studies of the peopling of the Americas have focused on the timing and number of initial migrations. Less attention has been paid to the subsequent spread of people within the Americas. We sequenced 15 ancient human genomes spanning from Alaska to Patagonia; six are >= 10,000 years old (up to similar to 18x coverage). All are most closely related to Native Americans, including those from an Ancient Beringian individual and two morphologically distinct "Paleoamericans." We found evidence of rapid dispersal and early diversification that included previously unknown groups as people moved south. This resulted in multiple independent, geographically uneven migrations, including one that provides clues of a Late Pleistocene Australasian genetic signal, as well as a later Mesoamerican-related expansion. These led to complex and dynamic population histories from North to South America.