Two new studies investigate the population history of native Americans, and come to differing conclusions. One study, published in Science, reports a single migration via Siberia <23,000 years ago for the founding population, with subsequent gene flow with East Asians and Australo-Melanesians. The second study, published in Nature, reports evidence for two founding populations, one of which had ancestry closely related to Australasians. The results from these studies add to the ongoing debate, and analysis of larger numbers of Amazonian genomes will probably be needed to piece together the complex demographic history.
References
Raghavan, M. et al. Genomic evidence for the Pleistocene and recent population history of Native Americans. Science http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aab3884 (2015)
Skoglund, P. et al. Genetic evidence for two founding populations of the Americas. Nature http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14895 (2015)
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Jones, B. One founding population, or two?. Nat Rev Genet 16, 499 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg4003
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg4003
