The genetic analysis found no modern human population that is directly descended from or directly representative of the Ancient North Siberians.

They had left their children’s teeth in the frozen sediment of the Yana River terrace, and then they had vanished — not as individuals, but as a recognizable genetic group.

Or so it initially appeared.

The Kolyma Connection — Following The Thread

The Sikora et al.

2019 Nature study was not solely about the Yana teeth.

It was a broad investigation of the population history of northeastern Siberia, using 48 ancient human genomes from the region spanning from the Pleistocene through the early Bronze Age, plus comparative data from 93 modern individuals from Alaska and western Siberia.

This broader scope is what allowed the team to trace the fate of the Ancient North Siberians after Yana.