Future studies with larger datasets, including populations from other regions that were not part of this comparison, might detect traces of Checua-related ancestry that the current analysis could not find.

The absence of a detectable signal in the populations studied so far is not the same as proof of total biological extinction.

What it does mean is that the demographic history of the Bogotá Altiplano was more dynamic than anyone had realized — that the genetic character of the people living on this plateau changed substantially, and apparently completely, between roughly 6,000 and 2,000 years ago.

The Plateau At 6,000 Years Before Present