Genomic diversity and admixture differs for stone-age Scandinavian foragers and farmers
Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 17:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Scientists report a breakthrough on understanding the demographic history of Stone-Age humans. A genomic analysis of eleven Stone-Age human remains from Scandinavia revealed that expanding Stone-age farmers assimilated local hunter-gatherers, and that the hunter-gatherers were historically in lower numbers than the farmers. The transition between a hunting-gathering lifestyle and a farming lifestyle has been debated for a century. As scientists learned to work with DNA from ancient human material, a complete new way to learn about the people in that period opened up.