mtDNA and the peopling of the Americas.
Year: 1993
Type: article
Abstract: What does genetics tell us about the origins and evolution of the indigenous peoples of the Americas? CavalliSforza and Edwards (1965, 1967) revolutionized the study of human origins by developing and applying methods of phylogenetic analysis to human genetic data. Subsequently, J. V. Neel and his colleagues pioneered approaches to understand the evolutionary history of Central American and South American Indians (e.g., see Fitch and Neel 1969; Ward and Neel 1976). Their critical insights and methodological refinements continue into the present (e.g., see Chakraborty et al. 1988; Barrantes et al. 1990; Thompson et al. 1992). North American aboriginal population affinities and the factors that influence them were also investigated over this period (e.g., see Spuhler 1972, 1979; Szathmary and Ossenberg 1978; Szathmary 1979, 1981, 1984, 1993; O'Rourke et al. 1985; Suarez et al. 1985a, 1985b). However, no overall assessment of genetic relationships among North America, South America, and Asia was undertaken, largely because of the restrictions imposed by genetic distance methods: the same loci must be studied in every population compared, and at least 30 loci are required for dendrogram stability (Nei et al. 1983). Few population studies could meet these criteria (Szathmary 1993). Accordingly, the inter-American comparisons that were done involved very few populations and were made in a global context (e.g., see Nei and Roychoudhury 1982; Weiss 1988). For various reasons, these sometimes led to different configurations of population relationships (e.g., see Cavalli-Sforza et al.
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Author: E J Szathmary
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W244335759