Continental Survivors: Baja skulls shake up American ancestry
Bruce Bower
Around 600 years ago, the Pericú people roamed the southern tip of what is now Mexico's Baja peninsula, a finger of land that extends below
California. Although the Spanish conquest spelled their demise in the 16th century, the Pericú were living links to America's first settlers,
according to a new anthropological study.
Pericú skulls closely resemble 8,000- to-11,000-year-old human skulls unearthed in Brazil, say Rolando González-José of the University of Barcelona,
Spain, and his colleagues. The Brazilian skulls look strikingly like those of today's Australian aborigines (SN: 4/7/01, p. 212: http://www.sciencenews.org/20010407/fob1.asp). Moreover, the scientists contend, the data indicate that the Pericú were unrelated to modern Native
American and eastern Asian groups.
These findings support the scientists' theory that both the first Americans, who arrived at least 12,000 years ago, and the first Australians, who
showed up down under around 40,000 years ago, have a common root in southern Asia. A second wave of American settlers, the ancestors of present-day
Native Americans, immigrated from northeastern Asia a mere several thousand years ago, González-José's group concludes in the Sept. 4 Nature.
That scenario clashes with the traditional view that both the initial and later waves of American settlers came from northeastern Asia.
"Slowly, we are realizing that the ancestry of the Americas is as complex and as difficult to trace as that of other human lineages around the world,"
comments anthropologist Tom D. Dillehay of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
González-José and his coworkers compared measurements of 33 Pericú skulls housed at a Mexican museum with those of 22 ancient Brazilian skulls and
hundreds of skulls from a worldwide sample of contemporary groups.
The Baja and Brazilian skulls exhibit telling similarities, the investigators say. These include long, narrow braincases and short, thin faces, a
pattern akin to that of modern inhabitants of southern Asia and South Pacific islands.
The Pericú and the ancient Brazilians were descendents of America's initial settlers, the scientists propose. After the last ice age ended around
10,000 years ago, they add, the expansion of a desert across the middle of the Baja peninsula isolated the Pericú from other Native American groups.
Some of the continent's first arrivals probably traveled south along the Pacific coast from Alaska to reach the Baja peninsula's southern tip,
González-José says. Researchers typically theorize that after trekking through Alaska, the first Americans headed south through an inland ice
corridor.
It's still unclear whether the Baja population descended from the continent's ancient settlers or grew to resemble prehistoric Brazilians by virtue of
adapting to a New World environment that's similar to Brazil's, Dillehay says.
According to archaeologist David J. Meltzer of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the next step is to extract DNA from the Baja and Brazilian
skulls and determine whether the two groups had close genetic ties. For now, Meltzer remains convinced by skeletal and archaeological evidence that
points to Siberia as the homeland of America's first settlers.
References:
Dillehay, T.D. 2003. Tracking the first Americans. Nature 425(Sept. 4):23-24. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/425023a.
González-José, R., et al. 2003. Craniometric evidence for Palaeoamerican survival in Baja California. Nature 425(Sept. 4):62-65. Abstract available at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature01816.
Further Readings:
Bower, B. 2001. Early Brazilians unveil African look. Science News 159(April 7):212. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/20010407/fob1.asp.
Sources:
Tom D. Dillehay
Department of Anthropology
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506
Rolando González-José
Universitat de Barcelona
Facultat de Biologia
Secció d'Antropologia
Diagonal 645
08028 Barcelona
Spain
David J. Meltzer
Department of Anthropology
Southern Methodist University
Box 750336
Dallas, TX 752750336
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Letters:
The multiple-origin theory of ancient New World immigration reported in this article has a long and respectable scholarly history, though it's
tarnished from time to time by enthusiasts for one race or another. For an early popular treatment, see Men out of Asia by Harold Sterling Gladwin
(1947, McGraw-Hill). Gladwin even mentioned the Pericú, who were cited in the article.
Gene McWhorter
Longview, Texas
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