Patterns of Isolation and Continuity in the Americas
4. Professor Meltzer notes that rapid dispersal and substantial population increase characterized the first peoples in the Americas, leading to early isolation and the emergence of subgroups through both geographic constraints like the Andes Mountains and social isolation due to increasing territoriality. Some areas show strong genomic continuity over millennia while others show discontinuity, with populations being displaced or replaced, and later influxes occurred around 6,000 years ago as maritime groups began crossing the Bering Sea, causing further admixture. Genomics is also used to study indigenous health history, including the incidence of diseases like tuberculosis, to help present-day descendants and confirm the devastating impact of infectious diseases introduced by Europeans.
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