Ancient mtDNA from Central America and Mexico

New article, Successful reconstruction of whole mitochondrial genomes from ancient Central America and Mexico, by Morales-Arce et al., Scientific Reports (2017).

Abstract:

The northern and southern peripheries of ancient Mesoamerica are poorly understood. There has been speculation over whether borderland cultures such as Greater Nicoya and Casas Grandes represent Mesoamerican outposts in the Isthmo-Colombian area and the Greater Southwest, respectively. Poor ancient DNA preservation in these regions challenged previous attempts to resolve these questions using conventional genetic techniques. We apply advanced in-solution mitogenome capture and high-throughput sequencing to fourteen dental samples obtained from the Greater Nicoya sites of Jícaro

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Review article about Ancient Genomics, by Pontus Skoglund and Iain Mathieson

A preprint article by two of the most prolific researchers in Human Ancestry is out, and they request feedback: Ancient genomics: a new view into human prehistory and evolution, by Skoglund and Mathieson (2017). Right now, it is downloadable on Dropbox.

.@pontus_skoglund and I wrote a review article about ancient genomics. Comments on the preprint very welcome! https://t.co/YrZS45Q0xt

— Iain Mathieson (@mathiesoniain) November 27, 2017

Abstract:

The first decade of ancient genomics has revolutionized the study of human prehistory and evolution. We review new insights based on ancient genomic data, including greatly increased resolution of the timing and

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New pre-print papers on ancient and modern population genetics

Two pre-print papers reposted or published recently, interesting for the genetic analysis of ancient and modern populations (emphasis mine):

Assessing the relationship of ancient and modern populations, by Joshua G Schraiber (2017) Abstract:

Genetic material sequenced from ancient samples is revolutionizing our understanding of the recent evolutionary past. However, ancient DNA is often degraded, resulting in low coverage, error-prone sequencing. Several solutions exist to this problem, ranging from simple approach such as selecting a read at random for each site to more complicated approaches involving genotype likelihoods. In this work, we present a novel method for assessing the relationship

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Preprint paper: Estimating genetic kin relationships in prehistoric populations, by Monroy Kuhn, Jakobsson, and Günther

A new preprint paper appeared some days ago in BioRxiv, Estimating genetic kin relationships in prehistoric populations, by researchers of the Uppsala University Jose Manuel Monroy Kuhn, Mattias Jakobsson, and Torsten Günther. Jakobsson and Günther. You might remember the last two from their work Ancient X chromosomes reveal contrasting sex bias in Neolithic and Bronze Age Eurasian migrations, whose results were said not to be replicable by Lazaridis and Reich (PNAS), something they denied pointing to the limitations of the current aDNA data (PNAS).

They propose a new, more conservative method to infer close … Read the rest “Preprint paper: Estimating genetic kin relationships in prehistoric populations, by Monroy Kuhn, Jakobsson, and Günther”

The Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) Database

A recent online database catalogues 20,000 threatened archaeological sites: The Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) Database.

Researchers at the Universities of Oxford, Leicester and Durham created the database in 2015 with support from the Arcadia Fund, a non-profit that seeks to preserve endangered heritage sites. The EAMENA team wanted to build a uniform catalogue of historic locations that are facing a growing onslaught of threats, according to a University of Oxford press statement. The resource was only recently made available to the public.

Not all damage and threats to the archaeology can be prevented,

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