Researchers have unveiled that the DNA of East Asian populations did not change much compared to their Stone Age ancestors. The migration waves led to a DNA mixing occurring between distinct human populations from various areas of the world, resulting in the diversity we face today. Moreover, when agriculture became Homo sapiens’ way of life approximately 12,000 years ago, the DNA mixing process happened even more quickly.
- Specialists have revealed that the DNA of East Asian populations looks strikingly similar to those their Stone Age ancestors.
- Due to a DNA mixing process, many human populations resulted in the diversity we know today.
- Experts have discovered such a human settlement known as the Ulchi.
Nevertheless, scientists believe that there must have been some human settlements which managed to escape the DNA mixing phenomenon with other Homo sapiens and their DNA remained almost the same to this date. Specialists discovered one such human settlement known as the Ulchi, indigenous people who lived in the Amur Basin area situated in Far East Russia.
Their appearance and DNA seems to be matching with those of people who used to live in this area approximately 7,700 years ago. An international group of experts has gathered DNA samples from two women who lived in the space where Russia border China and North Korea nearly eight thousand years ago.
In 1973, a team of Soviet scientists had first excavated the site. The women were found in a cave known as Chertovy Vorota located in a mountainous coastal area. Their bodies were discovered near other three bodies. After examining their DNA and comparing it to those of populations part of modern ethnic tribes, specialists have unveiled an extreme level of genetic continuity over the eight millennia.
This phenomenon occurring in the Far East is contrasting with the genetic material of populations located in Western Europe. In that area, human DNA of people living there thousands of years ago reached to be very different from that of modern humans.
Andrea Manica, the senior author of the study and a scientist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, stated that from a genetic point of view, the populations living in northern East Asia have barely changed during the last eight millennia. The ancient hunter-gatherers and the Ulchi appeared to be almost identical regarding their DNA.
Leaving aside the Ulchi, scientists have also revealed that the findings from the Devil’s Gate suggested that those bodies were closely related to Tungusic-speaking communities living in northern China today.
Image source: wikipedia
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