The tooth that she carried is the physical evidence of that connection, translated into the language of modern genetics and offered back to the present as a specific fact about a specific past.

She was here.

Her tooth says so.

And that is more than the vast majority of people who ever lived have left for the world to find.

— ABSOLUTE FINAL END —

The Shape of What Will Come Next

The finding from the Trail Creek tooth is one chapter in a scientific story that is actively being written.

The ancient-genome record from Alaska and Beringia is growing as researchers identify more specimens in existing collections, conduct more systematic surveys of relevant sites, and apply more sensitive analytical methods to material that was previously considered too degraded for analysis.