Earliest Americans Arrived in Waves, DNA Study Finds

[FarCenter]

North and South America were first populated by three waves of migrants from Siberia rather than just a single migration, say researchers who have studied the whole genomes of Native Americans in South America and Canada.

Some scientists assert that the Americas were peopled in one large migration from Siberia that happened about 15,000 years ago, but the new genetic research shows that this central episode was followed by at least two smaller migrations from Siberia, one by people who became the ancestors of today’s Eskimos and Aleutians and another by people speaking Na-Dene, whose descendants are confined to North America. The research was published online Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The finding vindicates a proposal first made on linguistic grounds by Joseph Greenberg, the great classifier of the world’s languages. He asserted in 1987 that most languages spoken in North and South America were derived from the single mother tongue of the first settlers from Siberia, which he called Amerind. Two later waves, he surmised, brought speakers of Eskimo-Aleut and of Na-Dene, the language family spoken by the Apache and Navajo.

..


The team’s samples of Native American genomes were drawn mostly from South America, with a handful from Canada. Samples from tribes in the United States could not be used because the existing ones had been collected for medical reasons and the donors had not given consent for population genetics studies, Dr. Ruiz-Linares said. Native Americans in the United States have been reluctant to participate in inquiries into their origins. The Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society wrote recently to all federally recognized tribes in the United States asking for samples, but only two agreed to give them, said Spencer Wells, the project director.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/science/earliest-americans-arrived-in-3-waves-not-1-dna-study-finds.html

Anti-scientific idiocy in the US strikes again.

[alfredo]

1. I remember reading about some south American tribes stating that

their ancestors wore animal hides. I think they talked about them coming from a cold place. It's been a while and can't remember the source.

[msongs]

2. waves? does that mean they surfed in? nt

[Yavin4]

3. And Jan Brewer Demanded That They Show Their Papers n/t

[BlackHoleSon]

4. How in the world did they get to South America?

That is THOUSANDS of miles of incredibly hostile territory to cover. I could see getting there by water but by land - that's many gargantuan mountain ranges and waterless deserts to navigate.