Ancient DNA Raising New Ideas About Colonization of The Americas

[Rhykker]

Ancient DNA Raising New Ideas About Colonization of The Americas

DNA recovered from a body buried in Montana 12,600 years ago has been linked to modern American Indians, and its ancestry has been traced back to Asia.

Researchers have recovered DNA from a baby buried in Montana 12,600 years ago and linked it to today's American Indians, as well as other native peoples of the Americas. Based on artifacts found with the body, the boy is believed to have been a part of the Clovis culture, which existed in North American from about 13,000 years ago to about 12,600 years ago.

The boy's genome is the oldest ever recovered from the New World, and it revealed that his people were direct ancestors of many of today's native peoples in the Americas. While the skeleton was discovered in 1968, scientists have only recently developed the ability to recover and analyze complete genomes from such ancient samples.

The DNA also pointed to ancestry originating from Asia, which lends further credence to the standard idea of ancient migration to the Americas by way of a land bridge that has long since vanished. According to Dennis O'Rourke, an ancient DNA expert at the University of Utah who wasn't involved in the project, the results of this research will "raise a whole host of new ideas and hypotheses" about the early colonization of the Americas.

Source: Sante Fe New Mexican [http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/health_and_science/ancient-baby-dna-suggests-tie-to-native-americans/article_95420537-4f07-5f41-b47f-2c8ae0d4243a.html]


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[Reed Spacer]

Yes, but will they use it to create an army of zombie cavemen?

That's the real issue here.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Yes, but will they use it to create an army of zombie cavemen?

That's the real issue here.

I hope they do.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

holy shitt, do they just have a fort knox of old shit like that lying around? that fucker was found 46 years ago...

still pretty cool though, if only this was here before the big bill nye debate to give his side some fresh material.

 

[Reed Spacer]

that solves a mystery. they have always been wondering where the clovis people came from

And they would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids scientists...

 

[Thaluikhain]

"lends further credence to the standard idea"

Yeah...not that exciting to have yet more proof for something generally accepted anyway.

Having said that, there'd be other implications of this, just not so much that one.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

"Ancient DNA"

I was going all stargate, but then I read the rest of the title.
I want to go to atlantis, dammit!

 

[CommanderL]

"Ancient DNA"

I was going all stargate, but then I read the rest of the title.
I want to go to atlantis, dammit!

damn you I was going to bring up stargate (^_^) But this is still cool even though its less awesome then finding an ancient

 

[CriticalMiss]

This doesn't really raise any new ideas about the colonisation of the Americas, it just backs up what scienctonomisers already thought. It's still cool that we can sequence genomes that old and is a little 'fuck you' to creationists to add to the ever growing pile of 'fuck you's.

 

[Something Amyss]

that solves a mystery. they have always been wondering where the clovis people came from

And they would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids scientists...

Now let's find out who they really are!

"lends further credence to the standard idea"

Yeah...not that exciting to have yet more proof for something generally accepted anyway.

Having said that, there'd be other implications of this, just not so much that one.

Yeah, I was unimpressed.

"Ancient DNA"

I was going all stargate, but then I read the rest of the title.
I want to go to atlantis, dammit!

"It means 'the place of our legacy.' Or it could be 'a piece of our leg....'"

This doesn't really raise any new ideas about the colonisation of the Americas, it just backs up what scienctonomisers already thought. It's still cool that we can sequence genomes that old and is a little 'fuck you' to creationists to add to the ever growing pile of 'fuck you's.

Did you see the Ham/Nye debate? All they need to say is "you weren't there!" and apparently all of "historical" science is invalid.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Snerp

Did you see the Ham/Nye debate? All they need to say is "you weren't there!" and apparently all of "historical" science is invalid.

I missed the debate itself but have seen a few videos of people pointing out (as usual) the nonsense Ken Ham said, like 'proving' that fitting all of the animals in to Noah's Ark would be really easy if there was a way for animals to gradually change in to different animals over time. But definitely not evolving because evolution isn't a thing!

 

[Something Amyss]

I missed the debate itself but have seen a few videos of people pointing out (as usual) the nonsense Ken Ham said, like 'proving' that fitting all of the animals in to Noah's Ark would be really easy if there was a way for animals to gradually change in to different animals over time. But definitely not evolving because evolution isn't a thing!

Unfortunately, the people who believe him are going to keep believing him. I only saw about half the debate because the stream kept screwing up on me, but Nye buried him with the math: using assumptions of Biblical kinds and being fairly generous with the number of "kinds," there would need to be 11 new species a day to account for the expansion in 4,000 years.

Still, it's hard to argue with "but you weren't there!"

...Right?

Also, the Mormons. This is nothing new, but it is always nice to have further proof that my ancestors were not a lost tribe of Israel just because a con artist said so.

 

[Rhykker]

"Ancient DNA"

I was going all stargate, but then I read the rest of the title.
I want to go to atlantis, dammit!

As a huge fan of SG1, I am disappointed with myself that SG never once crossed my mind while writing that article. I have seen every SG1 episode at least 3-4 times, and SGU 2-3 times. Sorry, never got into Atlantis, though.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

"Ancient DNA"

I was going all stargate, but then I read the rest of the title.
I want to go to atlantis, dammit!

As a huge fan of SG1, I am disappointed with myself that SG never once crossed my mind while writing that article. I have seen every SG1 episode at least 3-4 times, and SGU 2-3 times. Sorry, never got into Atlantis, though.

Atlantis is my favorite, personally, and I've seen all three.
I can't really put my finger on why, but somehow it ticks more than the other two.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Even taking my own cultural bias out of the mix I think this is pretty badass.

Discovering new things is always awesome but being able to add foundation to support established hypothesis is also pretty damn spiffy.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

This doesn't really raise any new ideas about the colonisation of the Americas, it just backs up what scienctonomisers already thought. It's still cool that we can sequence genomes that old and is a little 'fuck you' to creationists to add to the ever growing pile of 'fuck you's.

Also, the Mormons. This is nothing new, but it is always nice to have further proof that my ancestors were not a lost tribe of Israel just because a con artist said so.

You know, we, as creationists in general, don't have all the answers. But neither does science. And you guys don't need to be so freaking insulting.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I'm sorry, is this news? I thought it was already accepted knowledge that the Americas were first colonised by Asian peoples via Ice Age land bridges.

Pretty soon news articles will be discovering bronze.

 

[Something Amyss]

You know, we, as creationists in general, don't have all the answers. But neither does science. And you guys don't need to be so freaking insulting.

As creationists, you don't really have any answers. As creationists, you believe something despite evidence instead of evidence and that's fine, but don't pretend you have answers. Or reason. Or anything. At best, creationism is an unsubstantiated belief. At worst, it is an attack on science and knowledge and used as an attempt to circumvent church-state separation when people are upset they can't use public funds to indoctrinate kids.

I'm also really curious as to what about quoting Ken Ham when talking about Ken Ham is insulting. Or what pointing out that the Book of Mormon is factually incorrect is insulting. Mormon doctrine teaches that the Natives of North America are a lost tribe of Israel. That's wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Or was it calling Smith a con artist? Because he was. Even most Christians tend to hold that or similar beliefs, so again, I'm not sure why you'd be insulted. Unless, mind, you're specifically a Mormon, and since the LDS' beliefs don't jive with Ham's, that makes the earlier bit a little baffling.