Scientists have reached the conclusion that the first Americans came from Siberia after comparing the DNA sequences of living Native Americans to the ones of the ancient populations.
According to a recent study conducted by an international team of researchers at the University of California, Berkley, suggests that Native Americans came from Siberia 23,000 years ago. This migration occurred one single time during the last Ice Age, scientists have concluded.
Researchers at the University of California wanted to shed light on the origins of Americans. For that matter, they have conducted a detailed analysis of their migration processes in order to determine the direction they came from. According to their recent findings, it appears that the first Native Americans came from Siberia 23,000 years ago.
This migration took place around the period of the last Ice Age, but it is, nevertheless, unrelated to the migration of the Inuit and Eskimo populations that occurred more or less during the same period of time. Researchers were able to conclude, with the help of their recent research, that the Inuit and Eskimo migrations took place much later, making Siberian populations the first inhabitants of the Northern and Southern Americas.
Rasmus Nielsen, professor at the University of Berkley explained that the new finding was discovered by comparing the DNA sequencing of living Native Americans and Siberians living on the costs of the Pacific Ocean to those of ancient individuals, who lived in the Northern and Southern Americas.
More specifically, the DNA sequencing has been withdrawn from 31 alive individuals. The ancient persons, whose DNA has been recently analyzed were said to have lived between 200 and 6,000 years ago. The professor has further stated that more genome sequences will be analyzed in the future to get a clearer view on migration dates.
The study has further revealed that these populations were first located in the northern regions of the Earth, presumably, Siberia. Approximately 11,500 and 14,500 years ago, these groups adopted more distinctive traits and scientists could thus, determine that these populations have led to the formation of various tribes of Athabascans and Amerindians on the territory of North America.
The groups that migrated towards the south have led to the formation of the first populations of Americans in Central and South America. This diversification most likely occurred 13,000 years ago, according to Nielsen’s declaration.
Further studies will try to determine the factors that have led to this gene flow, as well as to better explain the alterations of the withdrawn DNA sequences. For the moment, scientists believe the gene flow came through the Aleutian Islanders on the coast of Alaska.
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John Birks
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