Register for the Wonder Theory Science newsletter from CNN. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific progress and more.
Cnn
–
Scientists studying ancient human remains discovered in Colombia discovered that the people they were looking for have no known ancestors or modern descendants.
In a study published on May 30 in the newspaper Scientific advancesA team of researchers reported the genetic data of 21 individuals whose skeletal remains were found in the Bogotá Altiplano in the center of Colombia, some of whom lived 6000 years ago, which belonged to a population previously unknown.
Previous studies have proven the existence of two north American and natal lines from South America, which developed after the arrival of people for the first time on the continent through a bridge of ice from Siberia and began to move south.
The latter was divided into at least three sub-chiefs whose movements have been traced in South America, but scientists have not yet verified when the first people were moved from Central to South America.
The study helps to map the movements of the first settlers, which would have been nomadic hunter-gatherers, the author of the study Andrea Casas Vargas, researcher of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, said on Wednesday in CNN, but she also found that they had the unique DNA.
Casas Vargas said that the team was “very surprised” to note that the remains do not share DNA with other people in the genetic file.
“We did not expect to find a line that had not been reported in other populations,” she said.
Casas Vargas stressed that the position of Colombia as an entry point into South America makes it important for our understanding of the population of the Americas.
“This study is very important because it is the first to sequence complete genomes in ancient samples of Colombia,” she said,
The results raise questions “about where they came and why they disappeared,” said Casas Vargas.
“We are not sure of what happened at that time that caused their disappearance, whether due to environmental changes, or if they were replaced by other population groups,” she added.
We hope additional research will provide answers, said Casas Vargas.
“Our next surveys will seek other archaeological remains of other regions of the country and will analyze them at the genetic level and complete this first discovery,” she said.
Christina Warinner, professor of scientific archeology at the University of Harvard, told CNN that Colombia “is a key region to understand the people of South America … But so far, it has been an empty place in the ancient DNA studies of the Americas.”
“This study highlights the deep history of migration and the mixture of the population in today’s populations, and indicates Central America as a key region that has influenced the development of complex companies in North and South America,” she added.