“Unearthed Secrets: How an Ancient Siberian Tribe Holds the Key to the Origins of Modern Native Americans”
But scientists continue to debate over how the ancestors of Native Americans were able to migrate out of Siberia. It’s believed that humans migrated out of Africa and reached the northern edge of Siberia about 45,000 years ago, but how they came to people other continents remains in question. One theory is that the ancient population crossed over a hypothetical land bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska known as the Bering Strait.
The genetic mosaic became ever more convoluted when Willerslev’s team found evidence that a second wave of Ancient Paleo-Siberians reached Alaska sometime between 9,000 to 6,000 years ago and the interbred with the preexisting Natives there. This group could be the ancestors of Kolyma1, creating a more coherent picture of ancient migration out of Siberia and into the Americas.
Connie Mulligan, an anthropologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville said, “To me, it makes total sense that there were a lot of populations migrating through the region and replacing each other, with some of them moving into the Americas.” Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks who was not involved with the work, added that “It fits together really nicely.”
Whether the puzzle is complete, though, will remain to be seen.
Next, learn about the “ghost DNA” scientists found in the West African Yoruba population. Then, read about Siberia’s “doorway to the underworld” and why scientists say that it is growing.
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