Woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, bison, horses, and other megafauna grazed across this landscape.

Predators — wolves, cave lions — followed the herds.

And people followed the predators and the herds, living in a landscape that, while cold and demanding, was far from empty.

The genetic evidence for the Beringian standstill — the period of population isolation that the demographic modeling implies — suggests that the founding population of the Americas spent an extended period in this homeland before the southward expansion began.

The specific genetic signature that distinguishes Native Americans from their closest northeastern Asian relatives is the product of this isolation.