Genome sequences of 36,000- to 37,000-year-old modern humans at Buran-Kaya III in Crimea

Abstract

Populations genetically related to present-day Europeans first appeared in Europe at some point after 38-40,000 years ago, following a cold period of severe climatic disruption. These new migrants would eventually replace the pre-existing modern human ancestries in Europe, but initial interactions between these groups are unclear due to the lack of genomic evidence from the earliest periods of the migration. Here we describe the genomes of two 36-37,000-year-old individuals from Buran-Kaya III in Crimea as belonging to this newer migration. Both genomes share the highest similarity to Gravettian-associated individuals found several thousand years later in southwestern Europe. These genomes also revealed that the population turnover in Europe after 40,000 years ago was accompanied by admixture with pre-existing modern human populations. European ancestry prior to 40,000 years ago persisted not only at Buran-Kaya III, but is also found in later Gravettian-associated populations of western Europe and Mesolithic Caucasus populations.

Early male and female footprints of modern humans across Eurasia and Australasia

“…The most prominent of these R* derived lineages was mtDNA haplogroup U*. Basal U* lineages have been found since the proto-Gravettian in Eastern Europe 146 and later in Siberia 147 , which again points to an equidistant center of radiation in Central Asia. MtDNA haplogroup U* split into three main independent clusters: U5, U6 and U2’3’4’7’8’9.…”

“…The most ancient European human specimens from Early Upper Paleolithic belonged to eastern Europe and harbor mtDNA macrohaplogroup N basal lineages without present-day direct descendants 139 , and the first recognizable derived N lineage appeared in Crimea as a pre-N1b lineage in a Proto-Gravettian substrate 140 . Mature N1a and N1b lineages as well as X2 and branches I and W1, respectively derived from N1 and N2 trunks, first appeared in the Middle East in Mesolithic times (Table 1).…”