The Hidden Ancestry

When the researchers compared the genome of the Mal’ta boy against a large dataset of modern human populations from around the world, they found a relationship that was, at first, difficult to believe.

The Mal’ta boy was genetically related to Native Americans.

Not distantly, in the way that all humans are related to each other through their shared African origin.

Related in a specific and statistically significant way — a way that reflected shared ancestry more recent than the broad human family, shared ancestry specific enough to have real explanatory power in understanding the origins of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.