Boy’s remains confirm Eurasian roots for Native Americans

Scientists have revealed that Native Americans look more Eurasian than East Asian.

Western Eurasian genes in modern-day Native Americans contain a mixed ancestry of the First Americans, a report published by Nature has revealed.

A post-Columbian link has been previously established.

“Gene flow from the MA-1 lineage into Native American ancestors could explain why several crania from the First Americans have been reported as bearing morphological characteristics that do not resemble those of east Asians,” scientists said.

The revelation was made using the anatomy of a 24 000-year-old south-central Siberian genome, whose gene flow is MA-1. The genome also happens to be the oldest modern human genome.

“This suggests that populations related to contemporary western Eurasians had a more north-easterly distribution 24 000 years ago than commonly thought. Furthermore, we estimate that 14% to 38% of Native American ancestry may originate through gene flow from this ancient population. This is likely to have occurred after the divergence of Native American ancestors from East Asian ancestors, but before the diversification of Native American populations in the New World,” the report said.

According to the Washington Post, the genome belonged to a three-year-old boy whose remains were at a museum in St. Petersburg. His upper arm bone was used for the genetic analysis. To further verify their findings, scientists investigated the fossil of a Siberian adult, whose remains were more recent – and the results proved strikingly similar to that of the boy’s.