Strange findings from ancient DNA

It is very rare to find people who live with DNA almost unchanged for 8000 years. The ancient world had crazy migrations and genome disturbances everywhere.

Most of human history is written not on paper but in our genes. Some genes express the true, unexpected origins of culture and evolution desperately to survive pandemics, while others do not change over thousands of years. Ancient DNA also dispels many myths but opens up new mysteries.

1. Columbus exchange period

The arrival of Europeans in the Americas has led to epidemics spreading in indigenous tribes. The first disaster from this connection was called "Columbus Exchange Period". Everything began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus crossed the sea to the New World.

Everything began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus crossed the sea to the New World.

Previously, pathogens existed in the Americas, including tuberculosis. But no disease can be as devastating as diseases coming from ocean-going trains - smallpox, measles, yellow fever and flu.

In theory, the susceptibility to the disease has been associated with American aboriginal evolution in isolation for thousands of years. Scientists finally found evidence when they studied the DNA of the Tsimshian people in 2016. Comparing the two groups, ancient and modern, they found great changes in immune-related genes. .

There are historical reasons for the spread of smallpox to Tsimshian people after Europeans arrived. The decline in genetic diversity suggests smallpox killed 57% of the population.

The Tsimshian people are now different from their ancestors genetically. Ancient people have a special sequence adapted to the regional pathogens. Genes in their descendants result from selective evolution to survive when new diseases emerge.

2. The origin of the Irish people

The origin of the Irish can be found in a woman and the Stone Age.

The origin of the Irish can be found in a new Stone Age and woman and three men from the Bronze Age. Called the woman Ballynahatty, her 5,200-year-old tomb was found in 1855 near Belfast. Her genome was sequenced in 2015 and showed genetic similarity to present-day Spanish and Sardinians. What is remarkable is that her ancestors came from the Middle East.

In the Bronze Age, settlers came from Eastern Europe. The male trio has ancestors from the Pontic Steppe, an area bordering both Ukraine and Russia. The 4,000-year-old Bronze Age group is most genetically similar to the Irish, Welsh, and modern Scottish people.

Irish people have noticeable genetic trends - easily digest milk when they are mature and a condition called iron pigmentation - excess iron stagnates in the body. Disorders have been found in women and in one of the men, but each person has a different mutation. This man also has genes to digest milk, but the woman does not. None of the four individuals was perfectly suited to the modern Irish genome, but represented some of the groups that formed the Xen.

3. The Koma Land

The Koma Land people used to live in West Africa in what is now Ghana. If this is not a mystery to them, archaeologists may have completely ignored the culture of this nation.

The Koma Land people used to live in West Africa in what is now Ghana.

All the Koma Land people leave are strange ceramic statues. The sculptures imagine depicting animals and humans, sometimes combining both hybrids and being found in mounds.

The researchers looked at the DNA left over from artifacts to determine their purpose. However, no one is too excited because the arid environment and objects that have been buried for centuries in hot sand mean that any DNA can be degraded and cannot be used.

But the magic is that the ceramic pots still contain useful traces of the genetic material of what they once stored. Most surprising is the finding of traces of bananas, bananas and pine trees, none of which is native to that period (AD 600-1300). This art culture must have well-established trade routes throughout West Africa and the Sahara, the largest hot desert on the planet.

4. DNA does not change

It is very rare to find people who live with DNA almost unchanged for 8000 years. The ancient world had crazy migrations and genome disturbances everywhere. However, the East Asian continent is an exception.

In 1973, a corpse was found in the Hell Gate, located in the Far East of Russia. Recently, DNA has been isolated from this Stone Age woman. Thanks to the limited genetic interference from the Neolithic period, her genes are very similar to some of the current ethnic groups in this area.

This is true for Tungus-speaking groups, including populations from China such as Oroqen and Hezhen. Still using the Tungus language is Ulchi.

Living on the border between Russia, China and North Korea, they still exist for two miraculous reasons. First, they still kept the original hunter-gatherer lifestyle until recently. Secondly, they seem to be direct descendants of the same population - and still basically the same population with the woman's new Stone Age hunters found in the Hell Gate.

5. Mota people

A cave in Africa.

Mota is an Ethiopian who rewrites the entire story of African migration. Perhaps he passed away 4,500 years ago, but his genes have said many things. Previously, it was believed that modern humans said goodbye to Africa about 70,000 years ago and traveled to the Middle East, Europe and Asia before farmers from the Middle East and Turkey returned to the Horns. Africa.

The Ethiopian man, named after the Mota cave, where he was found, provided the first genome sequenced from an ancient African. Mota's age makes him older than the Eurasians in the story still accepted by everyone. Another unknown group returned to them. He has no evolutionary genes outside Africa - genes that regulate skin and eye color are brighter, as well as unable to digest milk like Eurasians from Turkey and the Middle East.

Digging deeper into Mota's genome about his mysterious ancestors, the researchers found an extremely ancient match. That is the 7,000-year-old LBK culture from Germany. If Mota's Eurasian ancestor comes from LBKs, it will change the story of the time when Eurasians settled and spread throughout Africa.