Response to Comment on "Late Pleistocene human skeleton and mtDNA link Paleoamericans and modern Native Americans"

Studies of the peopling of the Americas have focused on the timing and number of initial migrations. Less attention has been paid to the subsequent spread of people within the Americas. We sequenced 15 ancient human genomes spanning from Alaska to Patagonia; six are ≥10,000 years old (up to ~18× coverage). All are most closely related to Native Americans, including those from an Ancient Beringian individual and two morphologically distinct “Paleoamericans.” We found evidence of rapid dispersal and early diversification that included previously unknown groups as people moved south. This resulted in multiple independent, geographically uneven migrations, including one that provides clues of a Late Pleistocene Australasian genetic signal, as well as a later Mesoamerican-related expansion. These led to complex and dynamic population histories from North to South America.

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Lapa vermelha IV Hominid 1: morphological affinities of the earliest known American

Genetics and Molecular Biology ◽

10.1590/s1415-47571999000400001 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 461-469 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Walter A. Neves ◽

Joseph F. Powell ◽

Andre Prous ◽

Erik G. Ozolins ◽

Max Blum

Keyword(s):

Native Americans ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Principal Component ◽

South Pacific ◽

Canonical Variate ◽

Bering Strait ◽

Fossil Hominids ◽

First Case ◽

First Americans

Several studies concerning the extra-continental morphological affinities of Paleo-Indian skeletons, carried out independently in South and North America, have indicated that the Americas were first occupied by non-Mongoloids that made their way to the New World through the Bering Strait in ancient times. The first South Americans show a clear resemblance to modern South Pacific and African populations, while the first North Americans seem to be at an unresolved morphological position between modern South Pacific and Europeans. In none of these analyses the first Americans show any resemblance to either northeast Asians or modern native Americans. So far, these studies have included affirmed and putative early skeletons thought to date between 8,000 and 10,000 years B.P. In this work the extra-continental morphological affinities of a Paleo-Indian skeleton well dated between 11,000 and 11,500 years B.P. (Lapa Vermelha IV Hominid 1, or "Luzia") is investigated, using as comparative samples Howells' (1989) world-wide modern series and Habgood's (1985) Old World Late Pleistocene fossil hominids. The comparison between Lapa Vermelha IV Hominid 1 and Howells' series was based on canonical variate analysis, including 45 size-corrected craniometric variables, while the comparison with fossil hominids was based on principal component analysis, including 16 size-corrected variables. In the first case, Lapa Vermelha IV Hominid 1 exhibited an undisputed morphological affinity firstly with Africans and secondly with South Pacific populations. In the second comparison, the earliest known American skeleton had its closest similarities with early Australians, Zhoukoudian Upper Cave 103, and Taforalt 18. The results obtained clearly confirm the idea that the Americas were first colonized by a generalized Homo sapiens population which inhabited East Asia in the Late Pleistocene, before the definition of the classic Mongoloid morphology.

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Too Little, Too Late? The Radiocarbon Chronology of Alaska and the Peopling of the New World

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/40035881 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 71 (4) ◽

pp. 595-620 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Michael R. Bever

Keyword(s):

Native Americans ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

New World ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Point Of Entry ◽

Central Asian ◽

Terminal Pleistocene ◽

Radiocarbon Chronology

Alaska is commonly viewed as a gateway between the Old and New Worlds, and as such, figures prominently in most models of the peopling of the New World. With a growing number of archaeological sites dating to the terminal Pleistocene, Alaska might be expected to provide direct evidence bearing on the colonization of the Americas. Based on 27 site components with 114 radiocarbon dates, this paper discusses the archaeological record of late Pleistocene Alaska, organized around the characteristics and chronology of three complexes: the microblade-bearing Denali complex, the Nenana complex, and the Mesa complex. This paper shows that the archaeological record of late Pleistocene Alaska is quite diverse, and not lacking in controversy and conflicting interpretations. In addition, this period of archaeological diversity coincides with the Younger Dryas climatic event. However, none of the reliably dated sites is older than the earliest evidence of human occupation further south in the Americas. Despite this, evidence from DNA studies points strongly to a north-central Asian homeland for Native Americans, upholding Alaska as the point of entry into the New World. Suggestions are offered, then, as to why the Alaskan record remains silent about the initial peopling of the New World.

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The Kennewick Skeleton: Chronological and Biomolecular Contexts

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/s0033822200041631 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 43 (2B) ◽

pp. 965-976 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

R E Taylor ◽

David Glenn Smith ◽

John R Southon

Keyword(s):

Native Americans ◽

South Asians ◽

Northeast Asia ◽

Western Hemisphere ◽

Early Holocene ◽

Indigenous Populations ◽

Human Skeleton ◽

Projectile Point ◽

Morphological Criteria

A human skeleton recovered near Kennewick, Washington, USA in 1996 has been dated to the early Holocene on the basis of multiple radiocarbon determinations, an analysis of a style of a temporally diagnostic projectile point found embedded in the ilium of the skeleton, and geological investigations of the locality where the skeleton was recovered. Based on morphological criteria, the Kennewick skeleton, which is one of the most complete early Holocene human skeletons recovered so far in the Western Hemisphere, appears to be more similar to those of modern South Asians and Europeans than to modern Native Americans or to contemporary indigenous populations of Northeast Asia.

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Origins and antiquity of the island fox (Urocyon littoralis) on California's Channel Islands

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/j.yqres.2008.12.003 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 71 (2) ◽

pp. 93-98 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Torben C. Rick ◽

Jon M. Erlandson ◽

René L. Vellanoweth ◽

Todd J. Braje ◽

Paul W. Collins ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Native Americans ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Channel Islands ◽

Genetic Studies ◽

Terrestrial Mammals ◽

Island Fox ◽

Northern Channel Islands ◽

Urocyon Littoralis ◽

Human Colonization ◽

Natural Dispersal

AbstractThe island fox (Urocyon littoralis) is one of few reportedly endemic terrestrial mammals on California's Channel Islands. Questions remain about how and when foxes first colonized the islands, with researchers speculating on a natural, human-assisted, or combined dispersal during the late Pleistocene and/or Holocene. A natural dispersal of foxes to the northern Channel Islands has been supported by reports of a few fox bones from late Pleistocene paleontological localities. Direct AMS 14C dating of these “fossil” fox bones produced dates ranging from ∼ 6400 to 200 cal yr BP, however, postdating human colonization of the islands by several millennia. Although one of these specimens is the earliest securely dated fox from the islands, these new data support the hypothesis that Native Americans introduced foxes to all the Channel Islands in the early to middle Holocene. However, a natural dispersal for the original island colonization cannot be ruled out until further paleontological, archaeological, and genetic studies (especially aDNA [ancient DNA]) are conducted.

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