Across the permafrost zones of Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and the Arctic islands, thousands of sites preserve similar material — some already discovered, most not yet investigated, all potentially containing the kinds of biological and cultural information that only the ice can maintain.

The Yana discovery is one revelation from this archive.

It will not be the last.

Other sites, other teeth, other bones, other biological materials preserved in the frozen ground will eventually be found and analyzed, adding to the picture that the Yana children’s teeth began to paint.

The story of the Ancient North Siberians is one chapter in a much longer book.

The book is still being written, page by frozen page, as the science of ancient DNA continues to read what the ice has kept.