Back in 2014 I posted about Ancient migrants into America carrying mtDNA M haplogroup 5,000 years ago. In it, I mentioned the only study published, in 2007*, on the analysis of remains from a site in British Columbia, Canada (China Lake) and reported finding mtDNA haplogroup M, and suggested, due to the age of the reamains, that it was, together with haplogroups A (A2), B (B2), C (C1b, Cc, C1d9), X (X2a), and D (D1) one of the founding maternal lineages in America.
This groundbreaking paper reported the following:
"We analyzed two mid-Holocene (∼5000 years before present) individuals from North America that belong to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup M, a common type found in East Asia, but one that has never before been reported in ancient or living indigenous populations in the Americas. This study provides evidence that the founding migrants of the Americas exhibited greater genetic diversity than previously recognized, prompting us to reconsider the widely accepted five-founder model that posits that the Americas were colonized by only five founding mtDNA lineages."
* Malhi, Ripian et al. (2007), Mitochondrial haplogroup M discovered in prehistoric North Americans. Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 642-648. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2006.07.004
Nineteen years of Silence
I find it surprising, that in almost 19 years after the publication of the original paper there haven't been andy new studies, research, publications, or confirmation (or refutation) of this finding... What is going on?
Citations
But Malhi's paper was noticed. I checked Google Scholar and saw that there were 85 papers that cited Mahli et al. Yet, none of them seem to deal with this new founding haplogroup.
Mahli's paper specifically thanks the support provided by the "Canoe Creek, Soda Creek, and Dog Creek Bands who allowed the DNA testing of their ancestors". A similar paper, also published in 2007, reported the presence of haplogroup A in 5,000 year-old remains from Big Bar Lake, British Columbia, In this case the haplogroup is one of the recognized founding lineages and the authors stated that "Testing for mitochondrial DNA indicated haplogroup A, which is widespread in living Native Americans. Comparative mtDNA data suggest long-standing genetic continuity in the Pacific Northwest, but with evidence for a genetically diverse population in existence at 5000 BP."
This scientific ratificaton is what Native American communities are looking for, and what they like: continuity and "original people" confirmation. The paper also notes the support from the first people: "Collaboration between anthropologists and the Canoe Creek and High Bar First Nations"
I did find a publication ( Ancient DNA In Canada Reveals New Founding Lineage of Native Americans, Mammoth Trumpet, April 2007, Vol 22 No. 2 p.18), that mentions Malhi's paper and gives advances of his findings. It says, among other things: "These remains are 5,000 years old, and mtDNA recovered from the bones belong to haplogroup M. Like the other five Native American haplogroups, M has its roots in Asia, so it is consistent with the accepted model of the peopling of the Americas that has Asian groups migrating across Beringia, or along the Pacific rim, and into North America. This discovery, however, calls into serious question other aspects of the traditional model. Dr. Malhi and his co-authors write, “Our discovery demonstrates that a more genetically diverse group of migrants colonized the Americas than previously thought and supports the hypothesis that significant undocumented genetic diversity likely still remains in the Americas.” In other words, the discovery of a previously unknown haplogroup not only demonstrates that ancient America was more genetically diverse than modern native America, it also increases the likelihood that more undiscovered haplogroups remain to be revealed by additional research." It also informs that the native tribes and the scientists agreed to rebury the remains after the studies. So, maybe that is why no further research was conducted on them.
A 2015 symposium included a paper by Alexa Walker, Brian Egan and George Nicholas (DNA & Indigeneity Proceedings, p. 5. The Changing Role of Genetics in Indigenous Rights, Tribal Belonging, and Repatriation. Oct. 22, 2015, Vancouover, BC, Canada) which gives a very brief summary of the discovery: "China Lake Ancestors In 1982, two individuals dated to over 6,000 years ago were found in a single burial site near China Lake, British Columbia. Genetic results found that both individuals belong to haplogroup M. Prior to this study, haplogroup M had not been found in any ancient or living North American populations. The results indicate that we still have much to learn about human expansion into the Americas. Further reading: Malhi et al. 2007."
Mahli also attended the symposium and his presentation can be read on page 49 (Partnerships with First Nations of British Columbia on Studies that include DNA Analysis). He again mentions the finding: "However, the China Lake individuals were found to possess a mitochondrial genome not currently found in sampled Indigenous individuals from the Americas. This lineage may either be in very low frequency or it may not exist anymore, possibly as a result of European contact and colonization."
Another paper published in Science (Victor Moreno-Mayar, 2018), in its Supplementary material (see p. 3), gives more details when it mentions the Big Bar Lake mtDNA results adding that "the two individuals recovered from the roughly contemporaneous, nearby China Lake site (the two sites are separated by just ~25 km), which could only be identified to mtDNA superhaplogroup M but excluding haplogroups C and D, a lineage common in East Asia, but otherwise unknown in the Americas. But, once again, it is citing the original, and for now, only paper on this subject, Malhi's 2007 work."
mtDNA M Haplogroup
I will summarize an interesting paper on this haplogroup by Marrero P, Abu-Amero KK, Larruga JM, Cabrera VM. Carriers of human mitochondrial DNA macrohaplogroup M colonized India from southeastern Asia. BMC Evol Biol. 2016 Nov 10;16(1):246. doi: 10.1186/s12862-016-0816-8. PMID: 27832758; PMCID: PMC5105315.
There are no "ancient and autochthonous mtDNA M lineages in western Eurasia", which is strange because the Out of Africa migration had to pass through this area in its initial dispersal, and the M haplogroup is ancient, splitting from the basal African L haplogroup at the time of the Out of Africa migration. The mtDNA M haplogroup is found in Australia, South East Asia, India, China, Arabia, Central Asia, Siberia. It is also found in some parts of North Africa and Europe (due to a back-mirgration from Asia).
The authors support a northern route for its dispersal and not a southern one that followed the coast of the Indian Ocean.
There are M1 lineages in the Mediterranean regions of Europe and the Middle East, and are believed to have arrived there from North Africa during the Paleolithic. And reached Africa from Southern Asia. The M haplogroup curently found among the Finno-Ugaric people in Lapland, the Urals, Northern Russia and Hungary is very recent, and due to a migration originating in East Asia (the Huns settled in Hungary, and we have the Mongols of Gengis Khan too!). There are also historic mixtures of Indian M variants in Mesopotamia and in the Roma (gypsy) people in Europe.
The Expansion route out of Africa: across the Middle East. the authors consider the archaich "fossils of early modern humans at Skhul and Qafzeh" as the first to successfully leave Africa, carrying the L3 haplo with them. They marched with a Northeastern course, and are associated with the early modern humans found in China ~100 ka. The authors propose an older age than generally accepted for the M haplogroup and say: "...we opine that the geneticists should resynchronize the mtDNA molecular clock with the Levant and East Asia fossil records instead of consider them as result of unsuccessful migrations."
These early migrants went north, reaching the Altai Mountains, admixed with Neanderthals and Denisovans there and then headed south due to the harsh weather there, crossing China into Southeast Asia, across Sunda, into Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Australia. From SE Asia they headed towards the NW, into India. Later "...in subsequent mild climatic windows, demographic growth dispersed macrohaplogroup M... northwards, most probably from overlapping areas that in time colonized northern Asia and the New World."
The maps below (fig. 2 in the paper) show the original dispersal (a) and the later one (b) including the backflow of M1 into Africa (dashed line).
Could these archaics, with Denisovan and Neanderthal admixture have continued their trek from Altai towards Beringia and then into America, 100,000 years ago? Did they carry the M haplogroup to America? Are the remains from China Lake in Canada the last of a long lineage that was stamped out by later arrivals c. 20 kya?
Considering also that the M haplo is also found in Melanesia... could it suggest an ancient +5ky old transpacific contact between Melanesia and British Columbia?
Continues in my next post.
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