James Chatters

1996
Kennewick, Washington

Peopling of the New World

Genetic Evidence from
Ancient Remains

Biological Clock
By tracking genetic changes, or
mutations, we determine
Population similarities
Differences
Relationships
When divergence took place
When change took place

Founding Population
Origins From the Altai
Mountains to the
southeastern Siberia
and northern China,
with possible Eurasian
influence

Based on modern DNA

Single migration with
isolation
and barriers to gene
flow

Alternate Theories
Some have proposed a
Polynesian connection-given
that some paleo crania have
similarities
Haplogroup B: east Asia,
southeast Asia, and Polynesian
populations, Americas
Known to be in the
Americas 10,000 years
Polynesians only arrived
3,500 years ago
Mutations that characterize
polynesians are absent in
the Americas
Last common ancestor much
more ancient not our
ancestors

830 yr. old

Nevada

Spirit Cave

Alternate Theories
X is identified in Americas, Asia, and
Europe adding evidence to
variation observed in the crania of
some paleoamericans
Asian and European X is missing
mutations only found in the Americas!
AGAIN THE RELATIONSHIPS ARE
ANCIENT AND DISTANT AND PREDATE
MIGRATION

WE FIND OLD WORLD

MUTATIONS IN THE NEW
WORLD
BUT WE DONT FIND
NEW WORLD
MUTATIONS IN THE OLD
WORLD

ON YOUR KNEES
10,300 BP
Y-chromosome & mtDNA
Young adult male

ON YOUR KNEES
Independent tests showed
that OYKC had haplogroup D

Haplogroups

A, C, D

New World
Haplogroups
A, B, C, D, & X

B&X

@ 10,300 ybp earliest evidence

of its existence in the NW
10% of Native Americans today
belong to the same
subhaplogroup as OYKC

Biological and
archaeological
evidence support a
coastal migration
route

Biological &
archaeological evidence
push entry into the New
World back to almost
20,000 ybp-other
archaeological evidence
points to even greater
antiquity