Ancient genomes in South Patagonia reveal population movements associated with technological shifts and geography

Nathan Nakatsuka,Alfredo Prieto,Ann Marie Lawson,Nicole Adamski,Rodrigo Nores,Graciela S Cabana,Fernando Santiago,Ricardo Aníbal Guichón ,Brendan J Culleton,Carles Lalueza‐Fox ,Swapan Mallick,Rodrigo Javier Vecchi ,David Reich,Pierre Luisi,Mónica Salemme,Nadin Rohland,Manuel Domingo D'angelo Del Campo ,Yolanda Espinosa‐Parrilla ,Douglas J Kennett,Thomas K Harper,Josefina María Brenda Motti

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17656-w

Abstract

Archaeological research documents major technological shifts among people who have lived in the southern tip of South America (South Patagonia) during the last thirteen millennia, including the development of marine-based economies and changes in tools and raw materials. It has been proposed that movements of people spreading culture and technology propelled some of these shifts, but these hypotheses have not been tested with ancient DNA. Here we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient individuals, and co-analyze it with previously reported data. We reveal that immigration does not explain the appearance of marine adaptations in South Patagonia. We describe partial genetic continuity since ~6600 BP and two later gene flows correlated with technological changes: one between 4700–2000 BP that affected primarily marine-based groups, and a later one impacting all <2000 BP groups. From ~2200–1200 BP, mixture among neighbors resulted in a cline correlated to geographic ordering along the coast.

Highlights

1234567890():,; Archaeological research documents major technological shifts among people who have lived in the southern tip of South America (South Patagonia) during the last thirteen millennia, including the development of marine-based economies and changes in tools and raw materials
Using qpAdm[38] to model the Late Holocene South Patagonian groups, we found that the maritime Kawéskar and Yámana could be modeled as 45–65% (±4–7%; we use 1 standard error to report qpAdm estimations) Chile_Conchali_700BP-related ancestry and the rest Chile_Ayayema_4700BP-related (Supplementary Data 6A, all models pass at P > 0.02 where P values are estimated by block jackknife resampling)
Our results falsify the hypothesis that the earliest marine adaptation in South Patagonia was due to a large-scale immigration into South Patagonia of people from the north who were already using this economic strategy (Question 1 in the introduction)

Summary

Introduction

1234567890():,; Archaeological research documents major technological shifts among people who have lived in the southern tip of South America (South Patagonia) during the last thirteen millennia, including the development of marine-based economies and changes in tools and raw materials. A handful of sites date to the early (~13000–8500 bp) and middle (~8500–3500 bp) Holocene, and site density increased considerably in the Late Holocene (

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