DNA found in Chinese cave linked with Native Americans

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People living in Red Deer Cave in southern China were not, as some have previously thought, representatives of an extinct species of humans. Instead, DNA analysis shows, they were very much part of the modern human family, but the population has turned out to be scientifically important for a different reason.

"Ancient DNA technique is a really powerful tool," said senior author Dr Bing Su of the Kumming Institute of Zoology in a statement. "It tells us quite definitively that the Red Deer Cave people were modern humans instead of an archaic species, such as Neanderthals or Denisovans, despite their unusual morphological features." 

Comparing with other ancient DNA, the closest affinity is found with a 13,900-year-old specimen from Siberia, and the oldest human DNA found in the Americas.

It's not news that Native Americans have a strong historical connection to East Asia, but the Reed Deer Cave findings have caused the authors to propose a different migration path from that previously favored. Instead of the first people to cross the Pacific being long-time residents of Siberia, they suggest a population had lived in southern China for a period, before some journeyed north, probably along a coastal route by way of Japan.

Source - https://www.iflscience.com/dna-from-chinese-cave-linked-to-ancestry-of-native-americans-64474