Ancient DNA Show Possible Migration

An article in National Geographic discusses some interesting information found in the DNA of early humans in southern Europe. Population geneticists have found that in the Iberian Peninsula area a migration that occurred roughly 4500 years ago had a drastic impact of the genetics of the people there. By sequencing the DNA of 271 ancient Iberians they found out that around 2500 B.C. there was the appearance of individuals from the Black and Caspian sea area which caused a change in the DNA of the population by about 40 percent. They also found that by 2000 B.C. the Y chromosome was completely changed, meaning that the migration that took place earlier consisted largely of men. Researchers believe that these men might have helped to usher in the Bronze Age in that area. There was also the skeleton of a single North African individual found in the Iberian area from about 2500 B.C. who shows that there was movement between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula earlier than they believed.

I think that the information that was discussed in this article was interesting because there is so much about our early human ancestors that we don’t know so any information that we can get can be rather fascinating. I also think it’s interesting how we can sequence the DNA of people back then, and how what we can find from this DNA can inform us about things like migration patterns from the Russia area to Europe, and what kind people might was traveled in this migration.