Overview
- An international team led by CONICET and the National University of Córdoba, with Harvard collaborators, reports the finding in Nature.
- The project analyzed 344 samples from 310 individuals across 133 archaeological sites, expanding a 2017 National Geographic–supported effort that began with 29 teeth from Córdoba.
- An individual from Córdoba dated to roughly 8,500 years ago anchors a previously unknown lineage that reappears in later ancient remains and persists in present-day inhabitants.
- The central ancestry took part in three movements: into northwest Argentina mixing with Andean ancestry, into the Pampas becoming predominant about 800 years ago, and into the Gran Chaco mixing with an Amazonian component.
- Results indicate scarce evidence for wholesale population replacement in central and northern Argentina and point to differentiation of Southern Cone populations at least 10,000 years ago.