Ancient DNA Reveals Mysterious New Group of Humans in Colombia With No Genetic Ties to People Today
The previously undocumented lineage of hunter-gatherers seems to have disappeared around 2,000 years ago
Margherita Bassi - Daily Correspondent
June 25, 2025 12:44 p.m.
Scientists have found genetic evidence of an ancient group of people in Colombia with no modern-day descendants. It’s as if they simply vanished from the face of the Earth. What’s more, they’re also not closely related to the ancient Native American populations that scientists had thought would be their ancestors.
“This is unexpected,” Andre Luiz Campelo dos Santos, an archaeologist from Florida Atlantic University who did not participate in the research, tells Adithi Ramakrishnan at the Associated Press. “Up to this point, we didn’t believe there was any other lineage that would appear in South America.”
An international team of researchers described the discovery in a study published in late May in the journal Science Advances. They analyzed DNA from the bones and teeth of 21 individuals found at five archaeological sites in the Altiplano—the high plains around Bogotá—dating to between 500 and 6,000 years ago. The analyses represent Colombia’s first ancient human genomes ever to be published.
Need to know: What is ancient DNA?
Ancient DNA is genetic material recovered from old biological remains. Often extracted from cells in bones, teeth or preserved tissues, the DNA might have degraded over time—but it can offer researchers a window into the genetics of populations that lived a long time ago.
Seven of the individuals belonged to the mysterious population—a previously undocumented lineage of people. These were the oldest remains analyzed in the study, and they were unearthed at the Checua excavation site north of Bogotá at an elevation of about 1.86 miles. While this group was present 6,000 years ago, they had disappeared by 4,000 years later.
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-dna-reveals-mysterious-new-group-of-humans-in-colombia-with-no-genetic-ties-to-people-today-180986819/
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