Genetic continuity and change among the Indigenous peoples of California.

ABSTRACT: Before the colonial period, California harboured more language variation than all of Europe, and linguistic and archaeological analyses have led to many hypotheses to explain this diversity¹. We report genome-wide data from 79 ancient individuals from California and 40 ancient individuals from Northern Mexico dating to 7,400-200 years before present (BP). Our analyses document long-term genetic continuity between people living on the Northern Channel Islands of California and the adjacent Santa Barbara mainland coast from 7,400 years BP to modern Chumash groups represented by individuals who lived around 200 years BP. The distinctive genetic lineages that characterize present-day and ancient people from Northwest Mexico increased in frequency in Southern and Central California b

SUBMITTER: Nakatsuka N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10872549 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature