6,000-year-old remains point to cryptic humans who vanished without a trace

A group of humans that settled in Colombia 6,000 years ago vanished without a trace 4,000 years later. Scientists have not found any of their ancestors with their DNA, nor are there any descendants. Who were they? Where did they go? Researchers say that this group started off as hunter-gatherers in the Bogotá Altiplano, which is now Colombia. They developed and became an agricultural society.

Studies of the fragmented DNA in their skeletal remains revealed that they did not have a lineage, Popular Mechanics reported. What's surprising is that none of the modern humans share their genes either. Scientists have theorised that their genes are likely diluted, assuming they mingled with the local population for several years. However, this is simply an assumption.

According to historical records, the first people to enter North America some 16,000 years ago were the ancestors of modern Indigenous people who originated in Siberian and East Asian groups. They mixed 20,000 years ago, during the Late Palaeolithic.

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Those who reached southern Native American lines branched out into three more lineages and penetrated further south.

Southern Native American lineages and their ancestors

According to the study in Science Advances, every southern Native American lineage can be traced back to the earliest ancestors. One of them is the Anzick-1 individual discovered in 1968, after a 12,700-year-old skull of a child belonging to the Clovis people was unearthed.

Another lineage in the Central Andes is from ancient people living in California’s Channel Islands. There is another lineage that has descended from the Clovis population.

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Researchers were able to establish a linguistic connection between the the mysterious people and those who speak the Chibchan languages, with certain shared genetic and cultural aspects. However, they failed to find a direct link with anyone.

Ancestral Proto-Chibchan language and its evolution

The researchers looked at the origins of the ancestral Proto-Chibchan language and its evolution into other distinct languages to better understand where the modern residents of the area came from. The branching off of the language is believed to have happened several thousand years ago, possibly in southern Central America. However, when and where the Proto-Chibchan language originated could not be pinpointed.

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They also carried out a genetic analysis of modern local Indigenous people to learn about their ancestors. A genetic analysis of local Indigenous people showed that they are related to more ancient speakers of Chibchan languages. According to some findings, they did not directly descend from the mysterious group of people that first settled in that part of Colombia.

The researchers studied the genomic and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 21 of these mysterious ancient individuals, which shed some light on their occupation and life. But, there is no clarity on where they came from and where they went.

The study authors say that more research is needed into other groups of people who had a similar language to the mystery group and lived around the same time.