14 DAY TRIAL // After analyzing genome sequences taken from several hominid individuals that lived in Europe thousands of years ago, researchers at the Harvard Medical School, in Boston, and the University of Tübingen, in Germany, say that the ancestors of modern-day Europeans lived in a melting pot of races.
The research paper the group published on the online server bioRxiv on December 23, 2013 argues that three distinct populations are responsible for creating modern-day Europeans. Another analysis of an ancient hominid specimen is scheduled to be released soon, and those conclusions will be inserted into this research as well.
The first group that played a role in forming the modern European population was made up of hunter-gatherers, most of them with blue eyes, who came to the Old Continent from Africa around 40,000 years ago. At that time, Neanderthals still roamed the Earth, though they were already dwindling.
Another group to contribute were brown-eyed farmers that came from the Middle East, though much later than the first group. The third group, the research team argues, roamed Northern Europe and Siberia, but not much else is known about them at this point, Nature reports.
These conclusions are based on an analysis of several genomes extracted from 8,000-year-old hunter gatherers. One specimen was unearthed in Luxembourg, while seven others were found in Sweden. The team also included genome data from a woman found in Germany, whose remains are 7,500 years old.
This investigation was led by UT expert Johannes Krause and HMS scientist David Reich. A second paper will be published soon and details the genome of a hunter-gatherer found in northwestern Spain. Its age is estimated to be around 7,000 years. The research is led by University Pompea Fabra expert Carles Lalueza-Fox.
Using a series of DNA variations, the two teams were able to reconstruct a portrait of these early humans. For instance, the individuals from Luxembourg and Spain had darker skins, blue eyes, and were hunter-gatherers, while the German women had lighter skin, brown eyes, and was a farmer.
Interestingly, all these individuals featured numerous copies of a gene that enables human saliva to break down starch, an adaptation that geneticists believe occurred in response to an agricultural-based lifestyle and diet.
Even more importantly, none of the hunter-gatherers was able to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk. Most studies indicate that this trait developed in the Middle East after the domestication of cattle, and that it did not make its way in Europe through intermingling until much later on.