Over the past four decades, researchers have come up with ways to run ever-more-sensitive DNA tests. In the most extreme of these, experts can reconstruct the entire genome using DNA fragments extracted from a single cell. » More …
The San Diego Archaeology Center holds a pair of extraordinary skeletons. Dating back about 9,500 years, they are among the oldest human remains ever found in the Americas.
A number of scientists would love to study the bones, using powerful new techniques to extract any surviving DNA. » More …
Two Washington State University researchers are part of a new study finding that present-day Native Americans migrated in a single wave from Siberia at least 23,000 years ago. » More …
First came the science, with researchers explaining how they analyzed Kennewick Man’s DNA and concluded that the 9,000-year-old skeleton from Eastern Washington is undoubtedly Native American. » More …
A new study conducted in part by Washington State University researchers Brian Kemp and Timothy Kohler suggests that dogs may have first successfully migrated to the Americas only about 10,000 years ago, thousands of years after the first human migrants crossed a land bridge from Siberia to North America.
The study looked at the genetic characteristics of 84 individual dogs from more than a dozen sites in North and South America, and is the largest analysis so far of ancient dogs in the Americas.
Unlike their wild wolf predecessors, ancient dogs learned to tolerate human company and generally benefited from the association: They gained access to new food sources, enjoyed the safety of human encampments and, eventually, traveled the world with their two-legged masters.