Towards the origin of America's first settlers

... A new genetic study of South American natives, published on the journal PLOS Genetics, provides scientific evidence to reformulate the traditional model and define new theories of human settlement of the Americas.

Professor Daniel Turbón, from the Department of Animal Biology of the University of Barcelona, is one of the authors of this international research, led by Lutz Roewer (Charité -- University Medicine, Berlin). Eduardo Arroyo-Pardo and Ana Maria López Parra (Complutense University of Madrid) also sign the paper.

Which was the earliest well-established culture in America?

This new research is based on the analysis of male Y-chromosomal genetic markers in about one thousand individuals, representing 50 tribal South American native populations. According to the authors, the extant genetic structure of South America native populations is largely decoupled from the continent-wide linguistic and geographic relationships. This finding demonstrates that the initial human settlement of the Americas was not a single migration process -- regardless of whether it took place through the Bering Strait -- , but rapid peopling, followed by long periods of isolation in small tribal groups. [...] ScienceDaily

Actualización 18-04-13. Tras la pista de los primeros pobladores del continente americano
La hipótesis tradicional más aceptada apunta a que los primeros pobladores de América fueron los clovis, un pueblo de cazadores que debió de llegar al continente hace aproximadamente 13.000 años desde el nordeste de Asia, a través del estrecho de Bering, y que se expandió por todo el territorio americano. Un nuevo estudio sobre genética de poblaciones nativas del continente americano aporta evidencias científicas para reformular el modelo tradicional y definir escenarios alternativos para el poblamiento de América...