Mitochondrial DNA Recovered From Alaska’s Ancient Infants

(Courtesy Ben Potter, UAF)

FAIRBANKS, ALASKA—Archaeologist Ben Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and geneticists Dennis O’Rourke and Justin Tackney of the University of Utah have analyzed mitochondrial DNA recovered from the remains of two infants found at the Upward Sun River site in Interior Alaska.

The cremated remains of a three-year-old child were also recovered at the site, but they did not yield any genetic material. “These infants are the earliest human remains in northern North America and they carry distinctly Native American lineages.


These genetic variations had not previously been known to have existed this far north and speak to the early genetic diversity of the time,” O’Rourke said in a press release. O’Rourke adds that “there had to be a period of isolation for these distinctive Native American lineages to have evolved away from their Asian ancestors. We believe that was in Beringia.”

Human remains older than 8,000 years have been found at only eight sites in North America, and all five major Native American lineages have been found in them. “That indicates they were present in the early population in Beringia that gave rise to all modern Native Americans,” Tackney explained.


To read more, go to "America, in the Beginning."

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Very interesting posting over at Archaerology http://archaeology.org/news/3832-151027-alaska-infant-dna
so next time some loud-mouth shouts out that Native Americans are a "minority" it might be worth pointing out that their native lineages can be traced back 11,500 years. Loud-mouths can probably only be traced back a few hundred!

That aside, these are very interesting results.