The actual founders — the people who walked into Beringia and eventually into the Americas — were the product of a mixing that included people related to MA-1, along with people from the East Asian lineages that make up the other major component of Native American ancestry.

The specific geography and timing of this mixing is still being worked out by researchers analyzing additional ancient genomes from Siberia and adjacent regions.

What is no longer in doubt is that the mixing occurred, that it produced the dual-ancestry founding population of the Americas, and that MA-1 is the clearest and earliest window yet into the Ancient North Eurasian side of that founding mixture.

What The Result Does Not Mean