Ancient DNA: what 2013 has brought
A summary of some major studies, news articles and reports:
- 400,000 year old Homo heidelbergensis in Iberia had mtDNA similar to Middle Paleolithic Denisovans from the Altai. This is important because of the age of the sample which opens up new vistas for ancient DNA research and because it is the first link to the mysterious Denisovans.
- A Neandertal inhabited the same cave where the Denisovan fingerbone was found. Denisovans had Neandertal admixture as well as admixture with an unknown "ultra-archaic" group; Eurasians have admixture from a Neandertal most similar to the Mezmaiskaya sample from the Caucasus; East Eurasians have a little bit of Denisovan admixture, while Australasians have a lot more; and all Sub-Saharan Africans seem to have a little bit of Neandertal admixture too, via West Eurasians during the Holocene.
- A ~24,000 year old Upper Paleolithic Siberian from Mal'ta is related to Native Americans who are a mix of it and East Asians. Mal'ta was related to West Eurasians and not to East Eurasians. It belonged to Y-haplogroup R* and mt-haplogroup U*.
- On the other hand, a ~40,000 year old from China was definitely East Eurasian.
- Europeans are a 3-way mix of Neolithic farmers, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and aforementioned UP Siberian-like "Ancient North Eurasians"; Early LBK farmers from Central Europe resemble later Oetzi,Swedish farmers, and probably Iberian farmers too. They also had mysterious "Basal Eurasian" ancestry from the deepest split of the Eurasian tree. Mesolithic Europeans had lots of Y-haplogroup I.
- Ancient mtDNA reveals that something happened during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age in Germany; the populations from that time are the first ones who appear quasi-modern in their haplogroup frequencies. It also turns out that hunter-gatherers didn't disappear in Germany after the LBK came along. And mtDNA haplogroup H, most frequent in modern Europeans, established itself around the Mid-to-Late Neolithic.
- West Siberia had a West/East Eurasian admixed population during the Bronze Age, like earlier ages.
- Lots of hints of interesting events in the European steppe too.
- Modern Tuscans probably not descended from ancient Etruscans; discontinuity seems to be the rule.
- Minoans were fairly regular Europeans, not North African (they had little mtDNA U, though, maybe likeMesolithic Greeks).
- A lot more mtDNA haplogroup U from really old Europeans, and mtDNA haplogroups M+N date to ~77 thousand years ago.
- Mesolithic west Europeans had blue eyes, but Neolithic Europeans had brown ones and European steppe populations "darker" than modern Europeans). ~8,000 year old Europeans had dark brown or black hair (at least two of them).
