Each new region that is sampled adds another dimension to the story that USR1 helped to initiate — the story of a diverse founding population that spread across two continents, adapting to every environment from the Arctic to the tropics, and developing the remarkable cultural and biological diversity that characterized the Americas at the time of European contact.

USR1 is the anchor point in this expanding dataset — not because she is the oldest or the most complete ancient American genome, but because she is the most deeply basal.

She sits closest to the root of the Native American family tree among all the individuals that have been sampled.

Every new ancient American genome that is analyzed will be compared to her, and her position in the family tree will either be confirmed or revised as the data grows.

The confirmation of her position — the finding that the Ancient Beringian lineage represents a real and important early branch of the Native American founding population — is already robust.