Skoglund, Pontus RMallick, SwapanBortolini, Maria CátiraChennagiri, NiruHünemeier, TábitaPetzl-Erler, Maria LuizaSalzano, Francisco MauroPatterson, NickReich, David2016-10-112015Skoglund, Pontus, Swapan Mallick, Maria Cátira Bortolini, Niru Chennagiri, Tábita Hünemeier, Maria Luiza Petzl-Erler, Francisco Mauro Salzano, Nick Patterson, and David Reich. 2015. “Genetic evidence for two founding populations of the Americas.” Nature 525 (7567): 104-108. doi:10.1038/nature14895. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14895.0028-0836http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:29002577Genetic studies have been consistent with a single common origin of Native American groups from Central and South America1-4. However, some morphological studies have suggested a more complex picture, whereby the northeast Asian affinities of present-day Native Americans contrast with a distinctive morphology seen in some of the earliest American skeletons, which share traits with present-day Australasians (indigenous groups in Australia, Melanesia, and island southeast Asia)5-8. Here we analyze genome-wide data to show that some Amazonian Native Americans descend partly from a Native American founding population that carried ancestry more closely related to indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders than to any present-day Eurasians or Native Americans. This signature is not present to the same extent or at all in present-day Northern and Central Americans or a ~12,600 year old Clovis genome, suggesting a more diverse set of founding populations of the Americas than previously accepted.en-USJournal Article2016-10-1110.1038/nature14895