DNA Sequencing Megathread! Neanderthals, Denisovans and other ancient DNA!

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like a demographic tidal wave washed over Europe, lapping even unto the shores of Ireland.

http://dienekes.blogspot.kr/2015/12/bronze-age-people-from-ireland-had.html

The Neolithic and Bronze Age transitions were profound cultural shifts catalyzed in parts of Europe by migrations, first of early farmers from the Near East and then Bronze Age herders from the Pontic Steppe. However, a decades-long, unresolved controversy is whether population change or cultural adoption occurred at the Atlantic edge, within the British Isles. We address this issue by using the first whole genome data from prehistoric Irish individuals. A Neolithic woman (3343–3020 cal BC) from a megalithic burial (10.3× coverage) possessed a genome of predominantly Near Eastern origin. She had some hunter–gatherer ancestry but belonged to a population of large effective size, suggesting a substantial influx of early farmers to the island. Three Bronze Age individuals from Rathlin Island (2026–1534 cal BC), including one high coverage (10.5×) genome, showed substantial Steppe genetic heritage indicating that the European population upheavals of the third millennium manifested all of the way from southern Siberia to the western ocean. This turnover invites the possibility of accompanying introduction of Indo-European, perhaps early Celtic, language. Irish Bronze Age haplotypic similarity is strongest within modern Irish, Scottish, and Welsh populations, and several important genetic variants that today show maximal or very high frequencies in Ireland appear at this horizon. These include those coding for lactase persistence, blue eye color, Y chromosome R1b haplotypes, and the hemochromatosis C282Y allele; to our knowledge, the first detection of a known Mendelian disease variant in prehistory. These findings together suggest the establishment of central attributes of the Irish genome 4,000 y ago

[Caliga]

On a related note, I am having my DNA sequenced.  I shall let you people know what percent Neanderthal and Denisovan I am.

[Valmy]

I shall let you people know what percent Neanderthal I am.

[Caliga]

[jimmy olsen]

Unless you're from Sub-Saharan Africa 0.0% is not going to happen Cal

[Caliga]

Unless you're from Sub-Saharan Africa 0.0% is not going to happen Cal

What makes you think I'm not?

[crazy canuck]

Unless you're from Sub-Saharan Africa 0.0% is not going to happen Cal

What makes you think I'm not?

You are no Steve Martin

[Malthus]

On a related note, I am having my DNA sequenced.  I shall let you people know what percent Neanderthal and Denisovan I am.

According to Darwinian sexual selection - I'd have to guess "whatever group had the largest tits". 

[The Minsky Moment]

"Pots, not people" has been thoroughly discredited. The history of Eurasia, in both historical,  prehistoric and even pre-anatomically modern times is one of migration and population replacement. Languages, like all other artifacts of culture were spread primarily by such demographic change, rather than through the simple exchange of ideas. Such did not become a dominant means of exchange until the development of extensive trade routes during the iron age.

That's ipse dixit, not argument.

"pots, not people" can't be discredited, much less thoroughly, because it is a truism.  Pots are not people.  Physical material and ideas, and yes even language can be transmitted across space without mass migration.  So some other *facts* are needed to establish mass "migration and population replacement" in any given instance where it is hypothesized.

[jimmy olsen]

Unless you're from Sub-Saharan Africa 0.0% is not going to happen Cal

What makes you think I'm not?

Because we've met in person? 

Also, you're not shy about your German heritage.

[jimmy olsen]

"Pots, not people" has been thoroughly discredited. The history of Eurasia, in both historical,  prehistoric and even pre-anatomically modern times is one of migration and population replacement. Languages, like all other artifacts of culture were spread primarily by such demographic change, rather than through the simple exchange of ideas. Such did not become a dominant means of exchange until the development of extensive trade routes during the iron age.

That's ipse dixit, not argument.

"pots, not people" can't be discredited, much less thoroughly, because it is a truism.  Pots are not people.  Physical material and ideas, and yes even language can be transmitted across space without mass migration.  So some other *facts* are needed to establish mass "migration and population replacement" in any given instance where it is hypothesized.

DNA sequencing of ancient populations has provided massive, direct evidence for mass migration and population replacement.

[The Minsky Moment]

DNA sequencing of ancient populations has provided massive, direct evidence for mass migration and population replacement.

No it hasn't, certainly not as a general matter.  It has confirmed that people move over time, which is not an enormous surprise.  But outright population replacement is not common, other than in "ancient" cases where the indigenous population was so small or ephemeral that even small numbers of migrants could have disproportionate genetic impact.  To take but one example, the DNA evidence does not support the hypothesis of mass population replacement via the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic invasion of British isles, which would have been one of the most promising historical episodes for a replacement scenario.  Sykes' book in fact indicated the genetic heritage of the British Isles did not significantly change since the Neolithic, and with a very substantial contribution still existing from the Mesolithic populations.

[Queequeg]

TBH I think there's still a lot of work to do on this.

As an American, I'm consistently surprised by the amount and scale of differences in phenotype in SE and Central Europe.  In Kotor I find "Serbs" who look like Italians or Greeks, in Podgoritsa or Vishegrad I'd find Serbs who are massively tall, thin-shouldered and and dark, and in Subotica I find Hungarians who look, frequently, very very different from an average Serb an hour's drive away in Novi Sad.  I think there's a lot of work to be done on the impact geography has on population replacement-it's very frequently the case that flatlands and prarie see rapid genetic replacement and shift while highlands are fantastically stubborn.

This is reflected in some sense in my own heritage.  My mom's family is, if you go back far enough, from NE/NC England, the old Danelaw, and that's probably the reason I'm tall and blonde.  My father's background is the Western UK and Scotland and has substantial Welsh and Cornish influence, which is why my nose is weird and I'm Robin Williams level hairy.

[Valmy]

Because we've met in person? 

It is true I was there.

Holy crap that was almost 10 years ago.

[jimmy olsen]

DNA sequencing of ancient populations has provided massive, direct evidence for mass migration and population replacement.

No it hasn't, certainly not as a general matter.  It has confirmed that people move over time, which is not an enormous surprise.  But outright population replacement is not common, other than in "ancient" cases where the indigenous population was so small or ephemeral that even small numbers of migrants could have disproportionate genetic impact.  To take but one example, the DNA evidence does not support the hypothesis of mass population replacement via the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic invasion of British isles, which would have been one of the most promising historical episodes for a replacement scenario.  Sykes' book in fact indicated the genetic heritage of the British Isles did not significantly change since the Neolithic, and with a very substantial contribution still existing from the Mesolithic populations.

We were not talking about the modern period, though I note that the Anglo-Saxon invasion of North America and the following waves of European immigration seems to have been rather successful, we were talking about the Neolirhic period in which there were massive waves of migration from the Near East and the Steppe into Europe by early farmers and pastoralists.