Overview
- An international team led by CONICET and the National University of Córdoba, with collaborators at Harvard, reports the findings in Nature.
- Researchers analyzed 344 samples from 310 individuals across 133 archaeological sites spanning central, northern, eastern and northeastern Argentina.
- A previously unknown lineage identified from an 8,500-year-old individual in Córdoba persists in present-day residents of central Argentina.
- The central ancestry took part in three interregional movements into northwest Argentina, the Pampas where it became predominant about 800 years ago, and the Gran Chaco where it mixed with Amazonian ancestry.
- The study finds no complete population replacement, documents Southern Cone differentiation beginning at least 10,000 years ago, and notes that the ancient central component now coexists with Eurasian and sub‑Saharan African ancestries introduced after European colonization.