Anthropologists said that DNA from ancient bones from northern British Columbia demonstrates a direct link between long-ago inhabitants and Native American descendants who live in the region today.
After assembling complete mitochondrial DNA genomes from four ancient individuals and three modern ones, the team found that living people had the exact same sequences found in bones that were thousands of years old — proving “definitively,” they said, that the native communities had been in the region a very, very, very long time.
Read the full article here: Ancient bones’ DNA draws a direct line to people living today
Additional Resources:
- “Ancient DNA Analysis of Mid-Holocene Individuals from the Northwest Coast of North America Reveals Different Evolutionary Paths for Mitogenomes,” PLoS One
Read the research article that describes the study. - “Mitochondrial DNA and human history,” Wellcome Trust
Check out this article to learn more about how mitochondrial DNA is used to track the maternal lines of modern people. - “Native American DNA Links to 6 ‘Founding Mothers‘,” LiveScience
Previous work on mitochondrial DNA in Native American populations, discussed in this article, suggests that most Native Americans can trace their ancestry back to just six women.
