DNA tracks ancient Alaskan's descendants

News Type: Event — Seeded on Sat Jan 3, 2009 4:42 PM EST

Article Source: adn.com: Alaska

science, alaska, dna-testing, ancestry, caveman, human-genetics, on-your-knees, prince-of-wales-island

Examining mitochondrial DNA obtained from cheek swabs taken from Alaskan natives reveals that none were related to the 10,000-year-old Alaskan found on Prince of Wales Island -- but they were related to coastal Indians in British Coumbia. However, the Prince of Wales caveman does appear to be related to peoples like the Chumash, the Cayapa of Ecuador and the Yaghan of Tierra del Fuego.

Published to:

MinnieApolis's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: ArchaeoVine, Human Evolution
Regions: Anchorage

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

5.1

{"commentId":4649663,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

MinnieApolis

If that "caveman" traveled from South America to Alaska, that was a heck of a commute...

{"commentId":4649663,"threadId":"459732","contentId":"2270986","authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

2 votes

#1 - Sat Jan 3, 2009 4:45 PM EST

{"commentId":4650422,"authorDomain":"quinnwr"}

Dubbya R

I think he was going the other way, wasn't he? Or did I misunderstand the story?

Anyway, thanks for the seed Minnie, I love seeing the tracing of the various routes and timelines develop. It's getting to be a more and more complicated map.

Now it's got me wondering if his genetic group continued around the tip to South America, and started heading North.

{"commentId":4650422,"threadId":"459732","contentId":"2270986","authorDomain":"quinnwr"}

4 votes

#1.1 - Sat Jan 3, 2009 5:56 PM EST

{"commentId":4650773,"authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

MinnieApolis

Watch my space for more. I am digging up a bunch of stories about related material in prep for an article on whether there is any substance to the Atlantis myth and were there any humans this side of the hemisphere that long ago?

{"commentId":4650773,"threadId":"459732","contentId":"2270986","authorDomain":"MinnieApolis"}

1 vote

#1.2 - Sat Jan 3, 2009 6:27 PM EST

{"commentId":4651030,"authorDomain":"quinnwr"}

Dubbya R

Thanks for the tip. These genetic traces will hopefully shed some light on all this travel, and from which (or more than one) direction the Americas may have been settled.

{"commentId":4651030,"threadId":"459732","contentId":"2270986","authorDomain":"quinnwr"}

2 votes

#1.3 - Sat Jan 3, 2009 6:51 PM EST

{"commentId":4651422,"authorDomain":"mikemendola"}

micrometer

Great seed Minnie. Thank you.

I've always been interested in anthropology of the native Americans. One theory is that there were at least three major waves of migration from Asia. The first one occurred 40,000 years ago.

Linguistic studies and oral traditions support the DNA evidence.

As far as the distances involved, if a population moved an average of only one mile a year, they could easily cover the distance from the Asian/American land bridge to the tip of Tierra del Feugo in a mere 10,000 years.

Of course, later arriving populations would interbreed with earlier ones, just as they did in other parts of the world, so the DNA sequencing might produce some garbled results. After all, 40,000 years is about 2000 generations; lots of time to both interbreed and mutate.

It's fun to speculate in any event.

{"commentId":4651422,"threadId":"459732","contentId":"2270986","authorDomain":"mikemendola"}

1 vote

#2 - Sat Jan 3, 2009 7:24 PM EST

{"commentId":4651666,"authorDomain":"TheEarthIsTheLORDs"}

Not by might, nor power

Thank you for this seed. Ms Apolis. I'm fascinated by facts like these.

{"commentId":4651666,"threadId":"459732","contentId":"2270986","authorDomain":"TheEarthIsTheLORDs"}

#3 - Sat Jan 3, 2009 7:44 PM EST

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"459732","isPrivate":false}

MINNIEAPOLIS

Backyard

DNA tracks ancient Alaskan's descendants

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: