In the last few years, cutting-edge research has revealed spectacular new insight into East Asia’s centrality to human prehistory. Paleogenomicists recently discovered an ancient, yet previously unrecognized, lineage of common ancestry known as Xingyi ancestry. This ancestry was first detected by researchers in a 7,100-year-old individual from Yunnan. Today, this discovery represents one of the major milestones toward understanding the genetic makeup of ancient peoples who lived in this region. The recently published analysis suggests that this ancestry is actually genetically distinct from the majority of modern East Asians. Equally important, it reveals the complicated relationships and movements that have influenced human life in this area over the centuries.
Research is surfacing some pretty eye-opening discoveries. The 7,100-year-old man from Yunnan has the same genetic differences as a 40,000-year-old from the Beijing area. This major discovery shows how our ancestral lineage flourished in Southwestern China for over 30 thousand years. It in large part determined the genetic makeup of modern populations. These findings bring into sharper focus Yunnan’s significance as a critical crossroads for many early human journeys and exchanges.
Discovery of the Xingyi Ancestry
During their research, the team stumbled on a truly exciting finding. So they were surprised to discover that Xingyi ancestry didn’t exist only in a Yunnan individual, but in an 11,000-year-old Longlin individual from Guangxi. This indicates a much wider geographic spread and historical importance of this ancestral lineage across southeastern East Asia. Xingyi ancestry slowly disappeared from subsequent populations in Guangxi. This legislative change further underscores major shifts in demographic patterns over the last five thousand years.
The genetic analysis revealed a particularly stark divergence with regard to Xingyi ancestry. It is distinct from other East Asian ancestries prevalent in northern and southern China. This divergence is a window into a convoluted string of migration and moving media. These processes have played a central role in determining the genetic makeup of contemporary East Asians. Our studies provide important evidence that Southwest China was the main area of contact among humans. This supports the idea that an initial Asian population diverged from other groups more than 40,000 years ago.
Implications for Understanding Migration Patterns
Yunnan’s gorgeous mountains and valleys, hard-won ecological wisdom, and deep diversity capture the attention and hearts of researchers. From keeping the Tibetan plateau free of incursions to revealing how important Austroasiatic speakers entered Southeast Asia. This research reveals the earliest evidence associated with Austroasiatic speakers. To do so, it takes full advantage of an impressive continuous record that goes back 5,100 years BP to 1,400 BP. Through this continuity, we see why Yunnan is an incredibly vital place of rich, historical significance.
This research further reveals the role that northern East Asian ancestry populations had on the eastern and western Yunnanese populations to the west and southeast, respectively. Understanding this interaction probably had a major role in affecting the global evolutionary genetic landscape of contemporary populations. The results illustrate that Yunnanese peoples diverged from northern and southern East Asian populations at minimum 19,000 years ago. This divergence celebrates the rich yet complicated legacy of human migration and interaction in the region.
“Population migration, replacement, and the preservation of deeply diverged ancestry in southern East Asia.” – Prof. Fu Qiaomei’s group