Early human dispersals within the Americas

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Moreno-Mayar, J. Víctor, Vinner, Lasse, de Barros Damgaard, Peter, de la Fuente, Constanza, Chan, Jeffrey, Spence, Jeffrey P., Allentoft, Morten E., Vimala, Tharsika, Racimo, Fernando, Pinotti, Thomaz, Rasmussen, Simon, Margaryan, Ashot, Iraeta Orbegozo, Miren, Mylopotamitaki, Dorothea, Wooller, Matthew, Bataille, Clement, Becerra-Valdivia, Lorena, Chivall, David, Comeskey, Daniel, Devièse, Thibaut, Grayson, Donald K., George, Len, Harry, Harold, Alexandersen, Verner, Primeau, Charlotte, Erlandson, Jon, Rodrigues-Carvalho, Claudia, Reis, Silvia, Bastos, Murilo Q. R., Cybulski, Jerome, Vullo, Carlos, Morello, Flavia, Vilar, Miguel, Wells, Spencer, Gregersen, Kristian, Hansen, Kasper Lykke, Lynnerup, Niels, Mirazón Lahr, Marta, Kjær, Kurt, Strauss, André, Alfonso-Durruty, Marta, Salas, Antonio, Schroeder, Hannes, Higham, Thomas, Malhi, Ripan S., Rasic, Jeffrey T., Souza, Luiz, Santos, Fabricio R., Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo, Sikora, Martin
• Other Authors: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Microsoft Research, National Geographic Society, National Park Service, Swiss National Science Foundation, Danish National Research Foundation, São Paulo Research Foundation, Lundbeckfonden, Quest Archaeological Research Fund, Potts and Sibley Foundation, H2020 European Research Council, European Research Council
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2018
• Subjects: Multidisciplinary; Alaska; Beringia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aav2621; https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.aav2621; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aav2621

Complex processes in the settling of the Americas The expansion into the Americas by the ancestors of present day Native Americans has been difficult to tease apart from analyses of present day populations. To understand how humans diverged and spread across North and South America, Moreno-Mayar et al. sequenced 15 ancient human genomes from Alaska to Patagonia. Analysis of the oldest genomes suggests that there was an early split within Beringian populations, giving rise to the Northern and Southern lineages. Because population history cannot be explained by simple models or patterns of dispersal, it seems that people moved out of Beringia and across the continents in a complex manner. Science , this issue p. eaav2621