Prehistoric migrations from China to the American continent better understood

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Scientists have long believed that the inhabitants of Siberia were the sole ancestors of the Native Americans.

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The American continent, the last to have been populated by humans, has long intrigued scientists, who seek to understand where these first populations came from and how they arrived.

A genetic study published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports(New window) (in English) provides some answers. Some of the first arrivals left China in two separate waves, during the Ice Age and just after, according to its authors.

Beyond the ancestral Siberian origins of Native Americans, which we already knew, the northern coast of China also served as a genetic reservoir for populations from the American continent, one of the researchers, Yu, told AFP. -Chun Li.

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Scientists have long believed that the inhabitants of Siberia, who had crossed on foot a strip of land which then united Russia and Alaska, were the only ancestors of the Native people of North America.

From the end of the 2000s, researchers discovered that people from Asia could also be linked to the first populations of Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico and even California.

For its article published Tuesday, the team from the Kunming Institute of Zoology analyzed tens of thousands of DNA samples and their mutations, looking for a common lineage.

She ultimately found 216 recent samples and 39 ancient descendants of the same lineage.

The results showed the existence of two migratory waves. The first began 26,000 years ago and ended 19,500 years ago, during the last ice age. The ice cover was at its peak then, likely making the climate of northern China inhospitable.

The second began during the melting ice period 19,000 years ago and lasted until 11,500 years ago. An increase in the human population could have caused it.

During this vaguely, part of this population settled in Japan, which could explain similarities observed between prehistoric arrows and spears found in America, China and Japan.

A quote from Yu-Chun Li , one of the researchers who authored the study

According to him, one of the strengths of the study lies in the x27;large number of samples discovered.

However, we do not know precisely from which places on the northern coast of China these migrations came, and what events favored them, he clarified. More evidence, including ancient genomes, is needed to answer these questions.