2002/01/01 by James C. Chatters, Douglas J. Kennett, Yemane Asmerom +14 · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Anatomy #Ancient DNA #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Art #Biology #Cave #Craniofacial #Demography #Dentition #Ecology #Evolutionary biology #Fauna #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Forensic and Genetic Research #Gene #Genetics #Haplogroup #Haplotype #Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup #Human skeleton #Humanities #Latin American socio-political dynamics #Mitochondrial DNA #Paleontology #Peninsula #Pleistocene #Political science #Skeleton (computer programming) #Zoology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1252619
openalex publication_date 2002/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Because of differences in craniofacial morphology and dentition between the earliest American skeletons and modern Native Americans, separate origins have been postulated for them, despite genetic evidence to the contrary. We describe a near-complete human skeleton with an intact cranium and preserved DNA found with extinct fauna in a submerged cave on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. This skeleton dates to between 13,000 and 12,000 calendar years ago and has Paleoamerican craniofacial characteristics and a Beringian-derived mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup (D1). Thus, the differences between Paleoamericans and Native Americans probably resulted from in situ evolution rather than separate ancestry.