Follow for more talkers

Native Americans may have originated in this part of China

“It is an important piece of evidence for understanding early human migration.”

Avatar photo

Published

on
Human remains in sand. Archaeological excavation and forensics. Made with selective focus.
(Photo by Pedal to the Stock via Shutterstock)

By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

Native Americans may have originated in south China, new research suggests.

Researchers said ancient human fossils found in China belonged to an extinct maternal branch of humans from which Native Americans could be descended.

The discovery was made by sequencing the genome of the fossils, which are around 14,000 years old, for the first time.

Scientists compared the fossils’ genome to that of other people around the world.

The experts found that the bones belonged to an individual whose ancestry was linked to the East Asian origins of Native Americans.

The team said this shows some people in South East Asia traveled north along the coast of China through Japan.

Eventually, these intrepid humans reached Siberia before crossing the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.

It is said they were the first people to arrive in the New World.

The first steps towards making the discovery were made more than three decades ago when archaeologists in China discovered a large set of bones in the Red Deer Cave in southern China’s Yunnan Province.

Carbon dating showed that the fossils were from the Late Pleistocene era about 14,000 years ago, a period of time when modern humans had migrated to many parts of the world.

In the cave, they recovered a hominin skull cap with characteristics of both modern humans and early humans.

The shape of the skull resembled that of Neanderthals while its brain appeared to be smaller than that of modern humans.

Some anthropologists had thought the skull probably belonged to an unknown early human species that lived until fairly recently or to a hybrid population of early and modern humans.

In 2018 Chinese scientists managed to extract ancient DNA from the skull.

Genomic sequencing found the hominin belonged to an extinct maternal lineage of a group of modern humans whose surviving decedents are now found in East Asia, the Indo-China peninsula, and islands in Southeast Asia.

They also found that during this period, the genes of hominins living in Southeast Asia were very diverse.

The amount of genetic diversity was greater than that found in northern East Asia during the same period.

It suggests that early humans who first arrived in eastern Asia had initially settled in the south before some of them moved to the north.

Dr. Bing Su, one of the study authors at the Kunming Institute of Zoology said: "The bones belonged to an individual that was linked deeply to the East Asian ancestry of Native Americans.

“Ancient DNA technique is a really powerful tool.

“It tells us quite definitively that the Red Deer Cave people were modern humans instead of an archaic species, such as Neanderthals or Denisovans, despite their unusual morphological features,”

“It is an important piece of evidence for understanding early human migration.”

The team now wants to sequence more ancient human DNA by using fossils from Southeast Asia, especially ones that predated the Red Deer Cave people.

Dr. Su added: “Such data will not only help us paint a more complete picture of how our ancestors migrate but also contain important information about how humans change their physical appearance by adapting to local environments over time, such as the variations in skin colour in response to changes in sunlight exposure.”

The findings were published in the journal Current Biology.

Stories and infographics by ‘Talker Research’ are available to download & ready to use. Stories and videos by ‘Talker News’ are managed by SWNS. To license content for editorial or commercial use and to see the full scope of SWNS content, please email [email protected] or submit an inquiry via our contact form.

Top Talkers