2018.10.24 Prof. Fu Qiaomei

Professor and Head of Ancient DNA Lab

Institude of Vertebrate and Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Profile

Unveiling the history of early modern humans through ancient genomes

With a growing pool of genomic data from past humans from many different times and locations, it is increasingly possible to study the large-scale patterns of the genetic history of humans over time and space. The speech covers the major features of human genetic prehistory, focusing on studies of ancient modern humans from primarily pre-agricultural cultures in different regions of the world. Analysis of the genomic data from ~45-35,0000-year-old modern humans shows: multipe distinct populations were present in Eurasia; some contributed to present-day populations - individuals from Russia and Belgium show the closest relationship to present-day Europeans and an individual from North China shows the closest relationship to present-day East Asians; however, other individuals highlight lost populations - at least two individuals from Western Siberia and Romania represent populations that did not contribute to any present-day Eurasians. In the period bracketing the Last Glacial Maximum, population subdivision, movement and partial or complete replacements are common themes in regional human prehistory. In West Eurasia, this is directly shown using specimens from ~35-15,000 years ago. An ~35,000-year-old individual from Belgium, different from other branches of early modern humans in Europe, carries some population representing ancestry that reaappered in ~19-14,000-year-old individuals. This is likely related to population fragmentation and migration that occured in human populations during the late-glacial period.