DNA Offers Insights into European Hunter Gatherers

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute For the Science of Human History have found evidence that a previously unknown major population shift took place in Europe 14,500 years ago.

Their findings come as part of a wide ranging study of early human hunter-gatherer DNA. The results have offered several valuable insights into prehistoric European demography, from the initial human dispersal from Africa into Asia and Europe, to the consequences of the last Ice Age.

The hitherto unheard of European population shift occurred as the last Ice Age was coming to an end. “During this period of drastic warming, it looks like the European hunter-gatherers were largely replaced by a population from a different maternal source,” explained Adam Powell, a senior author of the study at the MPI in Jena; in a press release published by the institute.