Survival of Late Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherer Ancestry in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Highlights d Iberian hunter-gatherers show dual Late Pleistocene genetic ancestry d Dual hunter-gatherer ancestry is the result of admixture from different refugia d This mixed Late Pleistocene ancestry can be traced in Iberian Neolithic farmers

Genomic and dietary transitions during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Sicily

“…2A). The genetic variation among post-LGM European HGs is structured along two clines: 1) a WHG-EHG-ANE cline, confirming the genetic gradient found in Mesolithic HGs from western to eastern Europe and 2) a WHG-GoyetQ2 cline between WHG and Central European Magdalenian-associated individuals on which Iberian HGs take an intermediate position ( 15-17, 38, 50, 56 ). As previously reported for OrienteC ( 15 ), the Sicily EM HGs UZZ5054 and UZZ96 fall at the extreme WHG-end of both ancestry clines, slightly outside the genetic variation of the Villabruna cluster, named after the site name of its oldest representative individual (∼12,230-11,830 calBCE) (Fig.…”

“…We found a pattern that is linked with geography (Fig. 4A): Sicily EM HGs share significantly more alleles with HGs from western Europe, including Villabruna cluster HGs, and Iberian Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic HGs that carry Magdalenian-associated ancestry ( 16, 50 ). In contrast, the Sicily LM HGs share significantly more alleles with Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic HGs from (south-)eastern Europe and Russia, including AfontovaGora3 , EHGs, Mal’ta1 and Iron Gates HGs.…”

“…Previous research has shown that the genetic diversity among European HGs after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was shaped by various deeply diverged ancestries ( 16, 17, 32, 38, 50, 56 ). One such ancestry came from a group of pre-LGM individuals dating to ∼30,000 calBCE and associated with the Gravettian industry (Věstonice cluster).…”

“…The elements were then sampled using various strategies, including grinding with mortar and pestle or cutting and followed by drilling into denser regions (Data file 1). Subsequently, for each individual 1-8 extracts of 100uL were generated from ∼50mg powder per extract, following a modified version of a silica-based DNA extraction method ( 83 ) described earlier ( 50 ) (Data file 1). At the MPI-SHH, 20uL undiluted extract aliquots were converted into double-indexed double stranded (ds-) libraries following established protocols ( 40, 84 ), some of them with a partial uracil-DNA glycosylase (‘ds UDG-half’) treatment ( 85 ) and others without (‘ds non-UDG’).…”

Late Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in the Central Mediterranean: new archaeological and genetic data from the Late Epigravettian burial Oriente C (Favignana, Sicily)

“…Lipson et al (2018) (their supplementary Figure S5.1) and Villalba-Mouco et al (2019) (their Figure 2A) showed that European Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers fall along two main axes of genetic variation. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) of f 3 -statistics shows that these axes form a “V” shape (Fig.…”