They were hidden not because they left no trace but because their trace had been diluted through thousands of years of subsequent population mixing, distributed across the genomes of later populations in proportions too small to identify without the reference point provided by the Yana genomes.

The Yana children’s teeth were the key that unlocked this hidden population.

Once the ANS genome was identified and characterized, it became possible to look for its signature in other ancient and modern genomes — to trace its contributions to later populations, to map its influence across the vast geography of northeastern Eurasia and the Americas.

The Arctic Circle As Frontier — Then And Now

The Arctic Circle is not a geological feature.