Journal article
Two ancient human genomes reveal Polynesian ancestry among the indigenous Botocudos of Brazil
University of Copenhagen1
Erasmus University Medical Center2
University of Oxford3
Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark4
Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark5
Metagenomics, Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark6
University of Toronto7
Integrative Systems Biology, Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark8
Aarhus University9
Understanding the peopling of the Americas remains an important and challenging question. Here, we present 14C dates, and morphological, isotopic and genomic sequence data from two human skulls from the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, part of one of the indigenous groups known as ‘Botocudos’. We find that their genomic ancestry is Polynesian, with no detectable Native American component.
Radiocarbon analysis of the skulls shows that the individuals had died prior to the beginning of the 19th century. Our findings could either represent genomic evidence of Polynesians reaching South America during their Pacific expansion, or European-mediated transport.
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Pages: | R1035-R1037 |
| ISBN: | 1902937597 , 190293766X , 190293766x , 9781902937595 and 9781902937663 |
| ISSN: | 18790445 and 09609822 |
| Types: | Journal article |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cub.2014.09.078 |
| ORCIDs: | Rasmussen, Simon , 0000-0002-6743-0270 , 0000-0001-7052-8554 , 0000-0001-7306-031X , 0000-0003-3936-1850 , 0000-0003-0513-6591 , 0000-0002-7081-6748 and 0000-0002-4445-5520 |
