Professor studies whether Americans were descendants of original modern humans

New analyses indicate that early migrants to the Western Hemisphere were descendants of the modern humans who originated in Africa and were part of the global dispersal of modern humans around the world, according to an analysis that includes a University of Kansas anthropological geneticist.

"We have always assumed that the initial peopling of the Western Hemisphere was a single, unique and independent event," said Dennis O'Rourke, a KU Distinguished Foundation Professor in Anthropology. "By seeing it as part of a larger global process, everything we learn about other dispersals into geographic areas out of Africa within the last 50,000 years or so are relevant to our understanding of the American case."

O'Rourke is a co-author of the article "Beringia and the Global Dispersal of Modern Humans," published in the April issue of the journal Evolutionary Anthropology. The authors examined recent developments in anthropological genetics, archaeology and paleoecology and how these findings inform us about the original migration to the Americas, as well as the human occupation of the former land bridge between Alaska and Siberia, known as "Beringia." Until recently, settlement of the Americas seemed to be largely separate from the out-of-Africa dispersal of modern humans that began at least 50,000 years ago. The earliest Americans were thought to descend from a small subset of Eurasians that migrated to the Western Hemisphere less than 15,000 years ago, O'Rourke said.

However, archaeological discoveries since 2000 have shown that Homo sapiens occupied Beringia prior to 30,000 years ago and during what is known as the Last Glacial Maximum, or LGM, he said, which is the last period in Earth's climate history when ice sheets were at their greatest extension. [...] The University of Kansas


Actualización: Los primeros americanos descendían de los humanos modernos africanos
Los primeros migrantes hacia América eran descendientes de los seres humanos modernos que se originaron en África, y formaban parte de la dispersión de los humanos modernos por todo el mundo.

Esta es la conclusión de un análisis que incluye a un genetista antropológico de la Universidad de Kansas. "Siempre hemos asumido que el poblamiento inicial del hemisferio occidental fue un sólo evento, único e independiente", afirma el profesor Dennis O'Rourke. "Al verlo como parte de un proceso global más amplio, todo lo que aprendemos acerca de otras dispersiones en las áreas geográficas de África en los últimos 50.000 años más o menos son relevantes para nuestra comprensión del caso americano."

O'Rourke es co-autor del artículo "Beringia y la dispersión global de los humanos modernos", publicado en la edición de abril de la revista Evolutionary Anthropology. Los autores examinaron la evolución reciente de la genética antropológica, la arqueología y paleoecología y cómo estos resultados nos informan sobre la migración inicial de las Américas, así como la ocupación humana del antiguo puente de tierra entre Alaska y Siberia, conocido como "Beringia."...