'Fourth Strand' of Previously Unknown Ancient European Human Ancestry Discovered

First Posted: Nov 16, 2015 10:34 AM EST

Researchers may have uncovered a previously unknown "fourth strand" of ancient European ancestry. The newly discovered ancestry may tell researchers a bit more about ancient populations of humans.

After humans expanded out of Africa, some hunter-gatherer populations migrated northwest, eventually colonizing much of Europe from Spain to Hungary. Other populations settled around the eastern Mediterranean and Levant, where they developed agriculture around 10,000 years ago. Eventually, these farmers expanded into and colonized Europe. Then, at the start of the Bronze Age about 5,000 years ago, there was a wave of migration from central Eurasian into Western Europe-the Yamnaya.

Now, researchers have sequenced ancient DNA found in two separate burials in Western Georgia. One was over 13,000 years old and the other was almost 10,000 years old. This revealed that the Yamnaya actually owe half of their ancestry to previously unknown and genetically distinct hunter-gatherers.

"The question of where the Yamnaya come from has been something of a mystery up to now," said Andrea Manica, one of the lead senior authors of the new study, in a news release. "We can now answer that as we've found that their genetic makeup is a mix of Eastern European hunter-gatherers and a population from this pocket of Caucasus hunter-gatherers who weathered much of the last Ice Ae in apparent isolation. This Caucasus pocket is the fourth major strand of ancient European ancestry, one that we were unaware of until now."

The findings reveal a bit more about the spread of hunter-gatherers and show how these ancient populations mixed genetically.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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TagsEurope, Human, Humans, human ancestor, prehistoric humans, DNA, Genetics, Genetic