The USR1 genome does not directly address the route question, because it documents a population that was already in the interior of Alaska by 11,500 years ago — a date at which both the coastal route and the ice-free corridor were available, and which postdates the initial entry into the hemisphere regardless of the route taken.

But the broader genomic evidence that the USR1 analysis fits within does contribute to the route debate.

The Ancient Beringian lineage, if it reflects a population that remained in or near the Beringian region rather than following the main southward expansion, is consistent with a model in which the coastal migration moved south while a residual population — the Ancient Beringians — remained in the north.

The geographic distribution of the Ancient Beringian lineage, as far as it can be characterized from a single genome, is consistent with a northern, interior Alaskan location rather than a coastal one.