The Tibetan Plateau extends from the northern edge of the Himalayas across 2.5 million square kilometres. It is a high-altitude, dry and cold region. Despite its inhospitable environment, humans have been present on the plateau since prehistoric times. Denisovans, extinct hominins that interbred with both Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern humans, lived on the northeastern edge of the plateau 160,000 years ago.
Historical records date back only 2,500 years. Dating of sediments with human hand- and footprints in the central plateau indicated thatFu and her team sequenced ancient genomes from the remains of 89 individuals, dated to 5,100–100 years ago, unearthed from 29 archaeological sites. Their study confirms that permanent occupation of the region pre-dates historical records.
“It’s very exciting that we are getting ancient DNA from this geographical region,” says Vagheesh Narasimhan, a computational genomics researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.Analysis of the genomes reveals that the ancient occupants of the Tibetan Plateau have strong genetic links to the Tibetan, Sherpa and Qiang ethnic groups that live on or near the plateau today.
“There’s a continuity,” says Irene Gallego Romero, a genomics researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia, “but there is also consistent movement of influences in and out of the region.” Evidence of these interactions has existed in the form of pottery and other artefacts, but this is the first definitive sign that populations were exchanging more than their culture and knowledge, says Fu.The genomes also reveal how Tibetan settlers adapted to their environment. Many present-day inhabitants of the Tibetan Plateau have a version of a gene,
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