The genetic prehistory of the New World Arctic

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Raghavan, Maanasa, DeGiorgio, Michael, Albrechtsen, Anders, Moltke, Ida, Skoglund, Pontus, Korneliussen, Thorfinn S., Grønnow, Bjarne, Appelt, Martin, Gulløv, Hans Christian, Friesen, T. Max, Fitzhugh, William, Malmström, Helena, Rasmussen, Simon, Olsen, Jesper, Melchior, Linea, Fuller, Benjamin T., Fahrni, Simon M., Stafford, Thomas, Grimes, Vaughan, Renouf, M. A. Priscilla, Cybulski, Jerome, Lynnerup, Niels, Lahr, Marta Mirazon, Britton, Kate, Knecht, Rick, Arneborg, Jette, Metspalu, Mait, Cornejo, Omar E., Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo, Wang, Yong, Rasmussen, Morten, Raghavan, Vibha, Hansen, Thomas V. O., Khusnutdinova, Elza, Pierre, Tracey, Dneprovsky, Kirill, Andreasen, Claus, Lange, Hans, Hayes, M. Geoffrey, Coltrain, Joan, Spitsyn, Victor A., Gotherstrom, Anders, Orlando, Ludovic, Kivisild, Toomas, Villems, Richard, Crawford, Michael H., Nielsen, Finn C., Dissing, Jørgen, Heinemeier, Jan, Meldgaard, Morten, Bustamante, Carlos, O'Rourke, Dennis H., Jakobsson, Mattias, Gilbert, M. Thomas P., Nielsen, Rasmus, Willerslev, Eske
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Alaska; Arctic Regions; Base Sequence; Bone and Bones; Canada; DNA; Mitochondrial; Genome; Human; Greenland; Hair; History; Ancient; Human Migration; Humans; Inuits; Molecular Sequence Data; Siberia; Survivors; Tooth; Alaska USA; North America Nearctic region; Aleutian Islands North Pacific Pacific Ocean; Arctic Ocean Arctic Ocean; Canada North America Nearctic region; Greenland Nearctic region; Siberia Russia; Asia; Europe Palearctic region; archeology; gene flow; genetic prehistory; genome-wide sequence data; geographical distribution; species migration; Primates Mammalia Vertebrata Chordata Animalia (Animals; Chordates; Mammals; Primates; Vertebrates) - Hominidae [86215] human common Fossil Native American; Inuit; 03506; Genetics - Animal; 03508; Genetics - Human; 03509; Genetics - Population genetics; 05000; Physical anthropology and ethnobiology; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; eskimo*; inuit; inuits; Paleo-Eskimo; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/38d35f0c-2808-47f3-9dec-b83ad4698276; https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1255832

The New World Arctic, the last region of the Americas to be populated by humans, has a relatively well-researched archaeology, but an understanding of its genetic history is lacking. We present genome-wide sequence data from ancient and present-day humans from Greenland, Arctic Canada, Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Siberia. We show that Paleo-Eskimos (similar to 3000 BCE to 1300 CE) represent a migration pulse into the Americas independent of both Native American and Inuit expansions. Furthermore, the genetic continuity characterizing the Paleo-Eskimo period was interrupted by the arrival of a new population, representing the ancestors of present-day Inuit, with evidence of past gene flow between these lineages. Despite periodic abandonment of major Arctic regions, a single Paleo-Eskimo metapopulation likely survived in near-isolation for more than 4000 years, only to vanish around 700 years ago.