Analysis of ancient teeth questions theory that Native Americans originated from Japan

[Judi Lynn]

By Harry Baker 1 day ago

The biological evidence "simply does not match up" with archeological finds.

Native Americans may not have originated in Japan as previous archaeological evidence has suggested, according to a new study of ancient teeth.

For years, archaeologists had predicted that the first people to live in North America descended directly from a group called the Jomon, who occupied ancient Japan about 15,000 years ago, the same time people arrived in North America around 15,000 years ago via the Bering Land Bridge, a strip of land that previously connected Russia to North America before sea levels rose above it. This theory is based on archaeological similarities in stone tools, especially projectile weapons, found in Native American and Jomon settlements.

However, the authors of the new study say this scenario is highly unlikely because the biological evidence "simply does not match up" with the archaeological findings, according to a statement from the researchers.

"The Jomon were not directly ancestral to Native Americans," lead author G. Richard Scott, an anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, told Live Science. "They [the Jomon] are more aligned with Southeast Asian and Pacific groups than with East Asian and Native American groups."

More:
https://www.livescience.com/native-american-origin-theory-debunked

[Random Boomer]

1. Which groups of Native Americans?

There were multiple waves of immigration throughout the Americas and possibly several different distinct groups arriving there from different origins. Discussing Native Americans as if they are one homogenous group doesn't capture that multi-layered history.

[Kali]

3. none of the waves were of Jomon ancestry.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. DNA is surely the best way to clear it up.

Y-DNA (all-male lineages) and mitochondrial DNA (all-female lineages) barely changes at all from generation to generation. When the mutations happened, they tended to spread over a particular geographic area to show us how ancient humans migrated. (Especially when long-distance travel wasn't made so easy by planes and automobiles.)

[Kali]

5. And it was done in this study.

This analysis of tooth traits and DNA within the teeth revealed that the Native Americans were not closely related enough to the Jomon people to consider them ancestors but that they may have descended from another unknown group from East Asia, Scott said.