Ancient DNA Reveals a Lost People in the Heart of Colombia
DNA from a highland plateau near Bogota has uncovered an unknown population of hunter-gatherers about 6,000 years old that vanished without a single living descendant.
- Researchers analysed DNA from 21 individuals at five sites on a highland plateau near Bogota, dated between 500 and about 6,000 years old.
- Seven of them belonged to an unknown basal lineage with no genetic link to any present-day population.
- That group disappeared around 2,000 years ago and left no known descendants.
- The study was published in the journal Science Advances.
A team led by Kim-Louise Krettek of the University of Tubingen has published an analysis of ancient DNA in the journal Science Advances that reshapes our picture of who lived on the Altiplano plateau near Bogota. The research shows that some 6,000 years ago, in the heart of what is now Colombia, there lived a population of hunter-gatherers that geneticists had never before identified.
The region around Bogota has long been regarded as one of the key gateways through which the first human groups entered South America. That is exactly why it is so surprising that seven of the 21 individuals studied belong to a basal genetic lineage with no link to any known population, ancient or modern. In other words, these people form a separate branch that split off early and then vanished.
Who were the people who left no descendants?
The samples come from five archaeological sites on the plateau and range from 500 to roughly 6,000 years old. The oldest individuals belong to the unknown lineage, and the genetic trace of that group fades out around 2,000 years ago. Study co-author Andrea Casas-Vargas of the National University of Colombia took part in the work, which ties the genetic data to the archaeological context of the sites.
What makes the finding unusual is the complete break. Most ancient populations leave at least a partial genetic contribution to the later inhabitants of an area. That is not the case here:
- the group belongs to a basal lineage, distinct from other early South American branches
- no living descendant of the population has been found
- the local ancestry was replaced by newcomers about 2,000 years ago
What does this say about the peopling of South America?
Around 2,000 years ago, populations connected to Central America take over the genetic profile of the plateau, coinciding with the arrival of the Herrera archaeological complex. The shift looks like a population replacement rather than gradual mixing, although the authors stress that a sample of 21 individuals remains small and that the conclusions should be read with caution.
The results suggest that the early genetic history of north-western South America was not continuous, but marked by population turnovers whose traces are not found among the region’s present-day inhabitants.
The study does not claim to know why the original group disappeared, nor that it was a single event. It remains an open question whether the newcomers displaced the earlier population, whether disease or climate pressure played a part, or some combination of factors. The next step will be more samples and broader chronological coverage.
How many more unknown human groups does the soil of South America hide, leaving us with nothing at all to go on?
