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A new tribe?
http://www3.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-09/bis-ant09100...
A new tribe is emerging from Mexico's scorched earth. A team of geoarchaeologists working on a programme investigating human evolution have found
skeletal remains in the desert of the Baja California Peninsula that give rise to new theories on the colonisation of the Americas.
The team from the Natural Environment Research Council and led by Dr Silvia Gonzalez, analysed the DNA of skulls with markedly different morphologies
to Native American Indians, commonly regarded as the first settlers of the Americas. The skulls are long and narrow, not in keeping with the Native
Indians' broader, rounder features.
"They appear more similar to southern Asians, Australians and populations of the South Pacific Rim than they do to Northern Asians," said Dr Gonzalez
of Liverpool John Moores University.
"DNA analysis of the Mexican remains suggest these people were at least partly contemporaneous to the first native American Indian settlers on the
continent," she added.
"We think there were several migration waves into the Americas at different times by different human groups. The timing, route and point of origin of
the first colonisation of the Americas remains a most contentious topic in human evolution."
This debate has been running for more than a century. Consensus is split between two camps: the first camp believe settlers came across the Bering
Straits, from Russia to Alaska, at the end of the last ice age 12-15,000 years ago. Evidence for this theory comes from Clovis Points - huge tools
used to hunt mammoths - found all over the American continent. DNA analysis of skeletal remains close to these Clovis Points suggest just four tribes
are responsible for populating the continent. The second camp say colonisation happened much earlier than this, 20-30,000 years ago, but their
techniques, using genetics, linguistics and dental morphology, have been steeped in controversy.
Dr Gonzalez's team have evidence of a previously unknown group, the Pericues, who went extinct in the 18th Century. She suggests this tribe may not
have taken the traditional route to the continent.
The work is one of 11 projects investigating whether environmental factors played a part in human evolution and dispersal. Funded by the Natural
Environment Research Council, the programme is tackling major anthropological questions such as: how did we become the only true global species? Why
did our ancestors swap the tropical beaches of Africa for the icy tundra? How do we explain our trademark big brains? What role did climate play in
making us adapt quickly to different environments?
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Tribe challenges American origins
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3634544.stm
Some of the earliest settlers of America may have come from Australia, southern Asia, and the Pacific, new research suggests.
By Paul Rincon
Traditional theories have held that the first Americans originated from northern Asia.
Dr Silvia Gonzalez conducted a study of ancient bones found in Mexico and found that they have very different characteristics to Native Americans.
The results are being presented at the BA Festival of Science this week.
Some of the ancient skulls she has looked at are more than 12,000 years old.
These skulls have long and narrow heads that are very different from the short, broad skulls of today's Native Americans.
One particularly well-preserved skull of a long-headed female, who has been dubbed Penon Woman, has been carbon dated to 12,700 years ago.
"They appear more similar to southern Asians, Australians and populations of the South Pacific Rim than they do to northern Asians," Dr Gonzalez, of
Liverpool John Moores University, told the British Association's annual meeting in Exeter.
"We think there were several migration waves into the Americas at different times by different human groups."
She said there was very strong evidence that the first migration came from Australia via Japan and Polynesia and down the Pacific coast of America.
Dr Gonzalez said the research would be controversial. "[Native Americans] cannot claim to have been the first people there," Dr Gonzalez said.
She also hinted that DNA recovered from Penon Woman would corroborate measurements of the skulls. "We have extracted her DNA. It is going to be a
bomb," Dr Gonzalez commented.
If proved correct, the findings might have implications for US legislation that covers the return of Native American remains and artefacts to
present-day tribes.
Recently, a coalition of native tribes lost their claim to the remains of Kennewick Man, a 9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State.
The case was won by a group of scientists who wanted access to the remains for study.
A population of the long-headed individuals being studied by Dr Gonzalez had survived into historic times, she claimed.
This tribe, which lived on the Baja California peninsula, were called the Pericues. But they appear to have died out in the 18th Century because of
disease.
Spanish missionaries reported that they were of a different racial type and had different customs to other Native Americans.
The results concur with a study of the Pericues carried out by Spanish researchers in 2003.
This also used measurements of the skulls to show that this population was only distantly related to contemporary Amerindian groups.
However, some scientists think that the older group of Americans may simply have evolved the features typical of present-day natives of the continent.
One study has shown marked differences in the skull shape of prehistoric and present-day Inuit populations.
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