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The lineages of the first humans to reach northeastern Siberia and the Americas

Humans reached the Americas from northeastern Siberia during the last ice age. Genomic analyses of ancient and modern individuals reveal the history of the peoples who have populated these regions.
  1. Anne C. Stone

    1. Anne C. Stone is in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.

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The far northeast of Siberia was the gateway to the Americas for ancient humans, and today is home to diverse cultures whose members speak many languages. During the Late Pleistocene period (the ice age that lasted from about 126,000 to 11,700 years ago), this area of Siberia was connected to North America; the land bridge and adjacent areas formed a region known as Beringia. Hunter-gatherer populations seem to have ranged widely1–3 across Siberia and into Beringia, sustained by megafauna such as woolly mammoths, and other animals. Writing in Nature, Sikora et al.4 and Flegontov et al.5 examine the genetic footprints of past peoples in northeastern Siberia and northern North America, to work out their relationships to modern communities. Sikora and colleagues also examine how these peoples were affected by climate change over the past 40,000 years.

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Nature 570, 170-172 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01374-5

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