The record is rich.

But until 2025, no ancient human genome from Colombia had ever been published in peer-reviewed literature.

The reasons are practical.

Ancient DNA requires well-preserved biological material.

The humid tropical and subtropical conditions that characterize much of Colombia are generally hostile to long-term DNA preservation — moisture and heat accelerate the bacterial degradation that destroys genetic material.

Even at the relatively cooler, higher-altitude environment of the Bogotá Altiplano, preservation is uncertain.

The extraction of useful genetic data from ancient bones requires finding individuals whose dental or skeletal material has retained enough molecular information to be read.