DNA study of Native Americans finds 3 waves of migration

The biggest survey of the DNA of Native Americans finds that the New World was settled in three big waves from Siberia and not one big migration as previously believed, the BBC reports, quoting from the journal Nature. Most of today's indigenous Americans, however, came from a single group that crossed into Alaska from Asia 15,000 years or more ago. The second and third migrations left an impact only in Arctic populations, the study finds. The team, which published its report in Nature this week, analyzed DNA from 52 Native American and 17 Siberian groups. The migrants moved over a natural bridge at the Bering Strait that appeared during the last Ice Age when sea levels were lower and hunters could cross...more