Western Colombia, the Caribbean coast, the Pacific lowlands, the Amazonian regions, and the northern Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta are all essentially uncharted from an ancient DNA perspective.

Each of these regions has its own distinctive archaeological record and its own Indigenous populations, and each might reveal distinct population histories.

The Isthmus of Panama and neighboring Costa Rica are particularly important for understanding the source of the Central American ancestry documented in the Herrera-period Altiplano individuals.

Greater coverage of ancient genomes from these areas would allow researchers to trace the specific population movements that brought Central American ancestry into the northern Andes, identifying when those movements began, what direction they took, and how rapidly they transformed the genetic landscape.

Venezuela and Ecuador, which occupy the geographic corridor between Colombia and other well-studied regions of South America, are also poorly represented in the ancient DNA record.