The cold Siberian climate, which had slowed the degradation of the boy’s DNA for 24,000 years, was the silent collaborator in the genomic discovery — as essential to the result as any laboratory technique.

The paper was published in Nature in November 2013 under the title “Upper Palaeolithic Siberian genome reveals dual ancestry of Native Americans.” The choice of journal and the framing of the findings reflected the significance that the research community attached to the results: this was not a regional finding or a methodological demonstration.

It was a major revision of the established understanding of Native American ancestry, published in one of the world’s most prominent scientific journals.

The response in the scientific community was substantial.