The ancient inhabitants of the Chonos Archipelago (~43°–47°S): Characterization of maritime hunter‐gatherers from Western Patagonia using mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Background: Within the southern end of South America, Western Patagonia arises as an intricate region of channels, fjords, and islands. This region holds evidence of human occupation since ca. 14,500 cal years BP, with distinctive maritime adaptations developing around 7300 cal years BP. Historically, three major populations were characterized as part of these maritime traditions: Yámana, Kawésqar, and Chono. The arrival of European population had a profound impact in these communities, affecting their lifestyles, territory and population size and health. The northernmost populations, living within the Chonos Archipelago, were the most affected and the least known communities from Western Patagonia. Objectives: This research aims to characterize the mitochondrial DNA diversity of ancient individuals from the Chonos Archipelago, evaluating their genetic affinities with other ancient and present-day populations from Patagonia. Materials and Methods: A total of 46 individuals from the region were sampled for ancient DNA analysis. Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups were characterized and compared with ancient and present-day populations from Southern South America. Results: All individuals from the Chonos Archipelago belong to C and D haplogroups, particularly to C1b, C1b13, D1, D1g, and D4h3a5. As a group, the individuals from Chonos Archipelago lay closer to ancient individuals from Kawésqar territory, immediately south of them. Using mitogenomes, we characterized two new D4h3a5 lineages almost exclusively associated with populations from Western Patagonia. Discussion: Our results contribute to the understanding of the peopling and human interactions in Western Patagonia, suggesting these unique maritime traditions developed within local populations, genetically associated with earlier terrestrial populations.

Tales from the end of the world: three decades of paleogenetic research in Patagonia

“…In addition, the identification of these lineages has been possible only after a significant increase in the sample size and geographical coverage. The overall low uniparental genetic diversity [63,[72][73][74]76,78,99], together with the reported excess of short Runs of Homozygosity [75] and the low conditional heterozygosity [76] from genome-wide data, support a reduced effective population size. This scenario is compatible with the founder effect(s) during the peopling of the region, followed by isolation and persistent small group sizes.…”

“…More recently, the mitochondrial DNA variation during the Late Holocene of the northern part of the western archipelago, in particular the Chono archipelago, was analysed. Moraga et al, [78] found significant differences between ancient individuals from the Chono archipelago and the ones described further south, supporting the presence of a distinctive group in this area. However, the authors also described some shared lineages within maritime hunter gatherers from other areas of the Patagonian archipelago.…”

“…MtDNA studies have shown that Patagonia is the least diverse region in South America, with a prevalence of haplogroups C1, D1 and D4h3a5 towards the south, with B2 mainly restricted to the north at low frequencies [63,68,72,73,76,[78][79][80] (Figure 2C and Table S1). This pattern is compatible with the effect of founding events and genetic drift acting on low population size groups during their southward dispersal.…”

“…For instance, the distribution of the lineage D4h3a along the Pacific coast of South America has been suggested as evidence of the migratory route followed by the first populations [85]. In Patagonia, a regional sub-haplogroup (D4h3a5) has been described in ancient and present-day populations [78,85,86] (Figure 2 and Table S1). As D4h3a5 derives directly from the Beringia founding clade, this evidence suggests an early population arrival to the region probably following a Pacific route, in agreement with the archaeological evidence of early sites along the Pacific slope [87].…”

The genomic and cultural diversity of the Inka Qhapaq hucha ceremony in Chile and Argentina

“…Museums were notified of the new study aims and methods and they agreed with implementing newer methodologies. DNA extractions were performed from tissue (muscle) or bone samples, using the protocols described in [64–66]. Double-stranded DNA libraries were built following the standard protocol from Meyer and Kitcher, 2010 and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq and NextSeq.…”