The detection of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry — its presence, its proportion, its relationship to East Asian and other ancestral components — has become a standard part of population genetic analyses involving Siberian, East Asian, Native American, and some European populations.

The specific questions that the Mal’ta discovery opened have been pursued through the analysis of additional ancient genomes.

Ancient individuals from the Yana rhinoceros horn site in northeastern Siberia, dated to roughly 31,000 years ago, provided a genetic reference point even older than Mal’ta, helping researchers understand the population history of Siberia before the Last Glacial Maximum.

Ancient individuals from the Devil’s Gate Cave in the Russian Far East provided information about post-glacial Siberian populations and their relationships to both the Ancient North Eurasian heritage and the East Asian populations that eventually contributed to the founding of the Americas.

Each new ancient genome adds a data point that constrains and refines the models of Siberian and American population history.