Ozymandias Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 A study of the oldest known sample of human DNA in the Americas suggests that humans arrived in the New World relatively recently, around 15,000 years ago. The DNA was extracted from a 10,300-year-old tooth found in a cave on Prince of Wales Island off southern Alaska in 1996. The sample represents a previously unknown lineage for the people who first arrived in the Americas. The findings, published last week online in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, shed light on how the descendants of the Alaskan caveman might have spread. More at National Geographic News Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 I'm suprised to see such broad assumptions from 1 sample coming from a NG article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozymandias Posted February 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 This is not more surprising that any kind of "broad assuptions" made by any scientist from any branch it might be. Still, why the fact that it is reported by NG makes this information less valuable ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Still, why the fact that it is reported by NG makes this information less valuable ? Because National Geographic is running The Genographic Project and if you understand what information they have gleened from that project, the conclusion stated in the article would be the same as them testing ancient DNA of say Haplogroup R1b and using that to generalize the entire population of Western Europe... Look at the map on the site I offered and perhaps you'll see what I'm getting at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Octavius Posted February 12, 2007 Report Share Posted February 12, 2007 How is it known that the migration (if such) did not go in the opposite direction? Someone, whom I cannot cite, advanced a theory of circum-polar migration. I believe that the migration went from Asia to Europe to North America. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted February 12, 2007 Report Share Posted February 12, 2007 A study of the oldest known sample of human DNA in the Americas suggests that humans arrived in the New World relatively recently, around 15,000 years ago. The DNA was extracted from a 10,300-year-old tooth found in a cave on Prince of Wales Island off southern Alaska in 1996. The sample represents a previously unknown lineage for the people who first arrived in the Americas. The findings, published last week online in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, shed light on how the descendants of the Alaskan caveman might have spread. More at National Geographic News I don't like to talk about things I haven't really studied (though Mrs Dalby believes that doesn't stop me) but I, too, don't see how such a sample in itself could prove what is claimed. You have to assume that Alaska was the only migration route. It's very likely that some settlement of the Americas took place via that route; but at how many different date(s), and whether there were other routes too, are big questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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