The geographic persistence of Ancient Beringian ancestry on the Seward Peninsula through 9,000 years may reflect the specific advantages of that location for a population maintaining a Beringian lifestyle after the land bridge itself was gone.

The maritime resources of the Bering Sea — seals, walrus, fish, sea birds — were available to people on the Seward Peninsula in ways they were not available to people in the Alaskan interior.

If Ancient Beringians had developed adaptations to coastal and maritime resource exploitation during the standstill period, the post-land-bridge Seward Peninsula would have been a natural place for those adaptations to continue to be effective.

Diet and Environment: What the Tooth Might Suggest