Report: American Indians all descended from single ancestral group

An international team of scientists has studied the DNA of modern American Indian groups and has found genetic evidence that they are all descended from a single ancestral population. In addition, that population was isolated from the rest of Asia for thousands of years before moving into the New World. “While earlier studies have already supported this conclusion, what’s different about our work is that it provides the first solid data that simply cannot be reconciled with multiple ancestral populations,” said Kari Britt Schroeder of the University of California, Davis.

Africans, however, have more genetic variation than anyone else on Earth. “Given the fact that modern humans arose in Africa, they have had time to accumulate dramatic changes,” said Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania.

A CT scan revealed a mummified puppy inside a bundle at the feet of an Egyptian human mummy. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have dubbed them “Hapi-Puppy” and “Hapi-Men,” respectively.