Post by UKarchaeology on Nov 24, 2015 2:25:18 GMT
Europeans owe their height to ASIAN nomads and blue eyes to hunter gatherers: Ancient DNA plots centuries of genetic changes that have shaped modern man
* Scientists, for the first time, tracked ancient genetic changes in Europeans
* They analysed the DNA obtained from 230 prehistoric human remains
* Two distinct genetic variants account for height differences in Europe
* Others indicate migrants from Turkey were first to bring farming to Europe
Height is one of the defining features of people from northern Europe, but it seems they owe their towering stature to an ancient group of nomads from central Asia's steppes.
Researchers studying DNA from Stone Age human remains have, for the first time, been able to track some of the key genetic changes that shaped modern Europeans.
In particular, they found that people from northern Europe owe their height to Bronze-age populations from the Eurasian steppes who migrated into the region.
Southern Europeans, on the other hand, owe their short stature to Neolithic hunter gatherers and later copper-age farmers living in Iberia.
However, the blue eyes that are often considered another hallmark of northern Europeans appear to have a far more ancient origin with our early hunter gatherer ancestors.
The research has also helped to unravel the mystery of how agriculture first moved into Europe around 8,000 years ago.
They found evidence that supports theories Europe's first farmers migrated from ancient Anatolia, in what is now Turkey.
Professor David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who was one of the senior authors on the study, said: 'It's a great mystery how present-day populations got to be the way we are today, both in terms of how our ancestors moved around and intermingled and how populations developed the adaptations that help us survive a bit better in the different environments in which we live.
'Now that ancient DNA is available at the genome-wide scale and in large sample sizes, we have an extraordinary new instrument for studying these questions.'
The international research team studied DNA from the remains of 230 ancient individuals who had lived between 3,000 and 8,500 years ago in Europe, Siberia and Turkey.
Among the ancient genomes sequenced were 83 that had never been sequenced before, including the first 26 to be gathered from the Mediterranean.
The warm conditions in this region usually cause DNA to degrade far more rapidly and so it is harder to extract it from prehistoric remains.
The researchers then compared the sequences against each other, and with modern populations, to build up a picture of how the genetic changes occur.
Professor Reich said it allowed them to observe how natural selection had moulded European populations through the millennia.
Their results, published in the journal Nature, show how genes that determine increased height appeared in northern Europe around 5,000 years ago.
Southern Europeans, however, appear to have inherited their shorter stature from two separate populations.
First the stone age hunter gatherers who lived in Iberia before the arrival of farming and later Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, tribes who moved into the area around 5,000 years ago.
Men from Holland are among the tallest in the world, averaging 6ft 3 inches (1.9 metres) closely followed by the Danish, British and the Swedish.
Full story, video & pics: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3330674/Europeans-owe-height-ASIAN-nomads-blue-eyes-hunter-gatherers-Ancient-DNA-plots-centuries-genetic-changes-shaped-modern-man.html
* Scientists, for the first time, tracked ancient genetic changes in Europeans
* They analysed the DNA obtained from 230 prehistoric human remains
* Two distinct genetic variants account for height differences in Europe
* Others indicate migrants from Turkey were first to bring farming to Europe
Height is one of the defining features of people from northern Europe, but it seems they owe their towering stature to an ancient group of nomads from central Asia's steppes.
Researchers studying DNA from Stone Age human remains have, for the first time, been able to track some of the key genetic changes that shaped modern Europeans.
In particular, they found that people from northern Europe owe their height to Bronze-age populations from the Eurasian steppes who migrated into the region.
Southern Europeans, on the other hand, owe their short stature to Neolithic hunter gatherers and later copper-age farmers living in Iberia.
However, the blue eyes that are often considered another hallmark of northern Europeans appear to have a far more ancient origin with our early hunter gatherer ancestors.
The research has also helped to unravel the mystery of how agriculture first moved into Europe around 8,000 years ago.
They found evidence that supports theories Europe's first farmers migrated from ancient Anatolia, in what is now Turkey.
Professor David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who was one of the senior authors on the study, said: 'It's a great mystery how present-day populations got to be the way we are today, both in terms of how our ancestors moved around and intermingled and how populations developed the adaptations that help us survive a bit better in the different environments in which we live.
'Now that ancient DNA is available at the genome-wide scale and in large sample sizes, we have an extraordinary new instrument for studying these questions.'
The international research team studied DNA from the remains of 230 ancient individuals who had lived between 3,000 and 8,500 years ago in Europe, Siberia and Turkey.
Among the ancient genomes sequenced were 83 that had never been sequenced before, including the first 26 to be gathered from the Mediterranean.
The warm conditions in this region usually cause DNA to degrade far more rapidly and so it is harder to extract it from prehistoric remains.
The researchers then compared the sequences against each other, and with modern populations, to build up a picture of how the genetic changes occur.
Professor Reich said it allowed them to observe how natural selection had moulded European populations through the millennia.
Their results, published in the journal Nature, show how genes that determine increased height appeared in northern Europe around 5,000 years ago.
Southern Europeans, however, appear to have inherited their shorter stature from two separate populations.
First the stone age hunter gatherers who lived in Iberia before the arrival of farming and later Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, tribes who moved into the area around 5,000 years ago.
Men from Holland are among the tallest in the world, averaging 6ft 3 inches (1.9 metres) closely followed by the Danish, British and the Swedish.
Full story, video & pics: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3330674/Europeans-owe-height-ASIAN-nomads-blue-eyes-hunter-gatherers-Ancient-DNA-plots-centuries-genetic-changes-shaped-modern-man.html