News
Sunken body found by divers offers clues to American origins
The ancient remains of a teenage girl discovered deep underground in Mexico are providing additional insights on how the Americas came to be populated.
Divers found the juvenile’s bones by chance in a vast, flooded limestone chamber on the Yucatan Peninsula.
Aged 15 or 16 at death, the girl lived at least 12,000 years ago.
Researchers have told Science Magazine her DNA backs the idea that the first Americans and modern Native American Indians share a common ancestry.
This theory argues that people from Siberia settled on the land bridge dubbed Beringia that linked Asia and the Americas some 20,000 years ago before sea levels rose.
These people then moved south to populate the American continents.
The genetics of modern Native Americans would certainly appear to link them into this story. But their facial features set them apart from the oldest skeletons now being unearthed.
These ancient people had narrower, longer skulls. The differences have hinted that perhaps there were multiple immigrations from Siberia (or even Europe).
However, the remains of the Yucatan girl, dubbed Naia – which means “water nymph” in Greek – does not follow that line of thinking, because although she had the slender features associated with the earliest Americans, her DNA shares commonalities with modern Native Americans.
Lab analysis of teeth and bone samples link her to a particular genetic lineage known as Haplogroup D1.
This same marker is found in substantial numbers of modern Native Americans.
“This lineage is thought to have developed in Beringia, the land that now lies beneath the Bering Sea after its ice age occupants became genetically isolated from the rest of Asia,” explained lead author Dr Jim Chatters.
“Thus, Naia, one of the earliest occupants of the Americas yet found, suggests that Paleoamericans do not represent an early migration from a part of the world different than that of the Native Americans.
“Rather, Paleoamericans and Native Americans descended from the same homeland in Beringia.
“The differences between them likely arose from evolution that occurred after the Beringian gene pool became separated from the rest of the world.”
You can read more on this story here.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news
Photo: Roberto Chavez Arce
Over the next 12 months, specialist scuba holiday company Dive Worldwide will be supporting Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation with donations collected from client bookings to any one of its stunning dive destinations around the world. The independently-owned operator expects to raise £3000 for the UK charity.
Manager at Dive Worldwide, Phil North, said: “We’re especially excited to work with Bite-Back and support its intelligent, creative and results-driven campaigns to end the UK trade in shark products and prompt a change in attitudes to the ocean’s most maligned inhabitant.”
Bite-Back is running campaigns to hold the media to account on the way it reports shark news along with a brand new nationwide education programme. Last year the charity was credited for spearheading a UK ban on the import and export of shark fins.
Campaign director at Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: “We’re enormously grateful to Dive Worldwide for choosing to support Bite-Back. The company’s commitment to conservation helps set it apart from other tour operators and we’re certain its clients admire and respect that policy. For us, the affiliation is huge and helps us look to the future with confidence we can deliver against key conservation programmes.”
To launch the fundraising initiative, Phil North presented Graham Buckingham with a cheque for £1,000.
Visit Dive Worldwide to discover its diverse range of international scuba adventures and visit Bite-Back to learn more about the charity’s campaigns.
MORE INFORMATION
Call Graham Buckingham on 07810 454 266 or email graham@bite-back.com
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