Scientists call them the Ancient Beringians

[oneh2obabe]

The ancient remains of an infant girl discovered in Alaska's interior Tanana River Valley in 2013 are the unexpected evidence of what is likely North America's first Indigenous people — a population predating and genetically distinct from now dominant Indigenous North American populations.

The girl is named "Xach'itee'aanenh T'eede Gaay" — Sunrise Girl-Child — in the Middle Tanana Athabaskan dialect, but dubbed "USR1" (Upward Sun River 1) in the scientific literature. Sunrise Girl-Child's remains are approximately 11,500 years old, but her ancestors likely entered Alaska 8,500 or so years earlier.

Scientists call them the Ancient Beringians.

Researchers say this is the first genomic evidence that all Indigenous North Americans can be traced back to a migration approximately 20,000 years ago across the Bering land bridge that once connected Asia and North America in what is now the Bering Strait.

That's according to a paper published Jan.3 in the prestigious science journal Nature. Part of the research is based on a genetic analysis of some of the girl's remains. The full genome of the girl was recently sequenced, and the results shocked researchers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/anc ... -1.4471997