Human evolution; a new group of recent humans (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, June 06, 2019, 23:36 (1995 days ago) @ David Turell

Found in Siberia:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2205463-childrens-teeth-reveal-previously-unknown-...

"They analysed genetic data from 34 samples that range between 31,000 and 600 years old, from high-latitude sites across the Asian continent, from Finland to the Bering Strait. The samples include two fragmented milk teeth from the Yana River site in north-eastern Siberia, which are the oldest human remains found at these harsh northern latitudes.

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"They found a lineage of people in the region that diverged from other populations around 38,000 years ago, which he and his colleagues have named Ancient North Siberians, that were not directly related to Native Americans. “It’s a people we didn’t know about. They died out. They have left tiny traces of DNA in contemporary Siberians but only a small trace, so that was a great surprise,” he says.

"Willerslev and his team found that these people moved further south to slightly warmer areas during the Last Glacial Maximum, from about 26,500 to 19,000 years ago. They are genetically closer to the hunter-gatherer populations in western Eurasia that those in the east.

"Another sample found near the Kolyma River in north-eastern Siberia dated to 10,000 years old, and may be from a descendant of the Ancient North Siberians. This sample is more closely related to the direct ancestor of Native Americans and to another group that lived east of the Bering Sea, which the team calls Ancient Palaeo-Siberians, who came about when East Asian people mixed with their northern neighbours, says Willerslev.

“'It was a really tough environment, but there were still at least three waves of migration,” he says. “Back then, there were large mammals – woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, steppe bison – so in terms of food resources, this was a really attractive place to be. You may be freezing your butt off, but at least you’d have something to eat.'”

Comment: Obviously with migrations, there were many sub-groups of H. sapiens.