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The genetic history of Ice Age Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Qiaomei Fu

    (Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, IVPP, CAS
    Harvard Medical School
    Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Cosimo Posth

    (Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen
    Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)

  • Mateja Hajdinjak

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Martin Petr

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Swapan Mallick

    (Harvard Medical School
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School)

  • Daniel Fernandes

    (School of Archaeology and Earth Institute, University College Dublin
    CIAS, University of Coimbra)

  • Anja Furtwängler

    (Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen)

  • Wolfgang Haak

    (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
    Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide)

  • Matthias Meyer

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Alissa Mittnik

    (Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen
    Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)

  • Birgit Nickel

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Alexander Peltzer

    (Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen)

  • Nadin Rohland

    (Harvard Medical School)

  • Viviane Slon

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Sahra Talamo

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Iosif Lazaridis

    (Harvard Medical School)

  • Mark Lipson

    (Harvard Medical School)

  • Iain Mathieson

    (Harvard Medical School)

  • Stephan Schiffels

    (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)

  • Pontus Skoglund

    (Harvard Medical School)

  • Anatoly P. Derevianko

    (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences
    Altai State University)

  • Nikolai Drozdov

    (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Vyacheslav Slavinsky

    (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Alexander Tsybankov

    (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Renata Grifoni Cremonesi

    (Università di Pisa)

  • Francesco Mallegni

    (University of Pisa)

  • Bernard Gély

    (Direction régionale des affaires culturelles Rhône-Alpes)

  • Eligio Vacca

    (Università degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’)

  • Manuel R. González Morales

    (Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas, Universidad de Cantabria)

  • Lawrence G. Straus

    (Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas, Universidad de Cantabria
    MSC01 1040, University of New Mexico)

  • Christine Neugebauer-Maresch

    (Quaternary Archaeology, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Austrian Academy of Sciences)

  • Maria Teschler-Nicola

    (Natural History Museum Vienna
    University of Vienna)

  • Silviu Constantin

    (“Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology)

  • Oana Teodora Moldovan

    (“Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology, Cluj Branch)

  • Stefano Benazzi

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
    University of Bologna)

  • Marco Peresani

    (Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Università di Ferrara)

  • Donato Coppola

    (Università degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’
    Museo di “Civiltà preclassiche della Murgia meridionale”)

  • Martina Lari

    (Università di Firenze)

  • Stefano Ricci

    (della Terra e dell’Ambiente, U.R. Preistoria e Antropologia, Università degli Studi di Siena)

  • Annamaria Ronchitelli

    (della Terra e dell’Ambiente, U.R. Preistoria e Antropologia, Università degli Studi di Siena)

  • Frédérique Valentin

    (CNRS/UMR)

  • Corinne Thevenet

    (INRAP/UMR)

  • Kurt Wehrberger

    (Ulmer Museum)

  • Dan Grigorescu

    (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics)

  • Hélène Rougier

    (California State University Northridge)

  • Isabelle Crevecoeur

    (Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5199-PACEA)

  • Damien Flas

    (TRACES – UMR 5608, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Maison de la Recherche)

  • Patrick Semal

    (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)

  • Marcello A. Mannino

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
    School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University)

  • Christophe Cupillard

    (Service Régional d’Archéologie de Franche-Comté
    Laboratoire Chronoenvironnement, UMR 6249 du CNRS, UFR des Sciences et Techniques)

  • Hervé Bocherens

    (Biogeology, University of Tübingen
    Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen)

  • Nicholas J. Conard

    (Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen
    University of Tübingen)

  • Katerina Harvati

    (Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen
    Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Paleoanthropology, University of Tübingen)

  • Vyacheslav Moiseyev

    (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography)

  • Dorothée G. Drucker

    (Biogeology, University of Tübingen)

  • Jiří Svoboda

    (Faculty of Science, Masaryk University
    Institute of Archaeology at Brno, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic)

  • Michael P. Richards

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
    Simon Fraser University)

  • David Caramelli

    (Università di Firenze)

  • Ron Pinhasi

    (School of Archaeology and Earth Institute, University College Dublin)

  • Janet Kelso

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • Nick Patterson

    (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge)

  • Johannes Krause

    (Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen
    Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
    Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen)

  • Svante Pääbo

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary)

  • David Reich

    (Harvard Medical School
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School)

Abstract

Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. Here we analyse genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000–7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3–6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas there is no evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe contributing to the genetic composition of present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. An ~35,000-year-old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiaomei Fu & Cosimo Posth & Mateja Hajdinjak & Martin Petr & Swapan Mallick & Daniel Fernandes & Anja Furtwängler & Wolfgang Haak & Matthias Meyer & Alissa Mittnik & Birgit Nickel & Alexander Peltzer , 2016. "The genetic history of Ice Age Europe," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7606), pages 200-205, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:534:y:2016:i:7606:d:10.1038_nature17993
    DOI: 10.1038/nature17993
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    Cited by:

    1. Sarah E. Freidline & Kira E. Westaway & Renaud Joannes-Boyau & Philippe Duringer & Jean-Luc Ponche & Mike W. Morley & Vito C. Hernandez & Meghan S. McAllister-Hayward & Hugh McColl & Clément Zanolli &, 2023. "Early presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia by 86–68 kyr at Tam Pà Ling, Northern Laos," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Owen Alexander Higgins & Alessandra Modi & Costanza Cannariato & Maria Angela Diroma & Federico Lugli & Stefano Ricci & Valentina Zaro & Stefania Vai & Antonino Vazzana & Matteo Romandini & He Yu & Fr, 2024. "Life history and ancestry of the late Upper Palaeolithic infant from Grotta delle Mura, Italy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Frédérik Saltré & Joël Chadœuf & Thomas Higham & Monty Ochocki & Sebastián Block & Ellyse Bunney & Bastien Llamas & Corey J. A. Bradshaw, 2024. "Environmental conditions associated with initial northern expansion of anatomically modern humans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Johndrow, James E. & Palacios, Julia A., 2019. "Exact limits of inference in coalescent models," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 75-93.
    5. Leonardo Vallini & Carlo Zampieri & Mohamed Javad Shoaee & Eugenio Bortolini & Giulia Marciani & Serena Aneli & Telmo Pievani & Stefano Benazzi & Alberto Barausse & Massimo Mezzavilla & Michael D. Pet, 2024. "The Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Chi-Chun Liu & David Witonsky & Anna Gosling & Ju Hyeon Lee & Harald Ringbauer & Richard Hagan & Nisha Patel & Raphaela Stahl & John Novembre & Mark Aldenderfer & Christina Warinner & Anna Di Rienzo &, 2022. "Ancient genomes from the Himalayas illuminate the genetic history of Tibetans and their Tibeto-Burman speaking neighbors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Maciej Chyleński & Przemysław Makarowicz & Anna Juras & Maja Krzewińska & Łukasz Pospieszny & Edvard Ehler & Agnieszka Breszka & Jacek Górski & Halina Taras & Anita Szczepanek & Marta Polańska & Piotr, 2023. "Patrilocality and hunter-gatherer-related ancestry of populations in East-Central Europe during the Middle Bronze Age," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.

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