image: La Doncela (The Maiden) is an Incan mummy that was found at Mount Llullaillaco in Argentina in 1999. The girl died 500 years ago during a ritual sacrifice. Her DNA was used in the present genetic study, along with more than 90 other pre-Columbian individuals that lived 500 to 8,500 years ago. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the April 1, 2016, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by B. Llamas at The University of Adelaide in Adelaide, SA, Australia, and colleagues was titled, "Ancient mitochondrial DNA provides high-resolution timescale of the peopling of the Americas." view more
Credit: Johan Reinhard