Science Alert reports:

Traces of a previously unknown group of people, genetically distinct from their neighbors, have persisted for at least 8,000 years in the central Southern Cone of South America, and Argentina in particular.

It’s believed to be among the last places humans reached in our species’ expansion across the world: Some of the earliest evidence of human presence in the continent’s southernmost reaches dates to around 14,000 years ago, though this is greatly debated by archaeologists.

And yet, very few studies have looked at ancient human DNA from this region.

A new study led by Harvard University human evolutionary biologist Javier Maravall López begins to fill in this blank spot on the map of our species.

“It’s a major episode of the history of the continent that we just weren’t aware of,” says Maravall López.

The team analyzed DNA from 238 ancient individuals from the central Southern Cone, whose lives collectively span 10 millennia.

The study increases the wealth of ancient DNA samples from this region by more than tenfold. It also places the data in the context of existing ancient DNA records dating back 12,000 years, from indigenous people who lived across the Americas before colonization. [Continue reading…]