Editor’s Note: There likely was migration much earlier in South America than the study suggests. Plus there were earlier migrations from Sundaland across the Pacific Ocean to Central and South America. It was also recently discovered that human life existed in Southern California as long ago as 130,000 years.
A new genomic study has traced what is now considered the longest known prehistoric migration: an epic movement of early Asians who, over thousands of years, traveled more than 20,000 km on foot from northern Asia to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America.
Using high-resolution DNA from 1,537 people in 139 Indigenous groups across Eurasia and the Americas, researchers reconstructed ancient ancestry patterns. The trail starts with modern humans leaving Africa, moving through the Middle East and Central Asia, and then into North Asia. From there, during the last Ice Age, some groups crossed the Bering land bridge, when Siberia and Alaska were connected by frozen steppe.
Once in the Americas, these migrants likely followed a coastal and river-valley route south. The genetic data suggest that around 14,000 years ago, a population reached the region where modern Panama meets Colombia—then a crucial funnel into South America. From this point, their descendants split into four main lineages: Amazonians, Andeans, Chaco peoples, and Patagonians, fanning out into rainforest, high mountains, dry plains, and icy fjords.
The journey demanded extreme adaptation. Groups had to cope with Arctic cold, mountain altitudes, tropical humidity, and semi-desert—all without metal tools or domesticated animals. The DNA also shows the cost of such isolation: as people pushed farther south, their genetic diversity shrank, especially in immune-related genes. That loss may help explain why some Indigenous communities were later so vulnerable to diseases brought by Europeans.
Still, the overarching story is one of resilience. Step by step, over countless generations, families carrying fire, tools, and stories walked until there was simply no more land left to discover.
Source: @Ancienthistoryexplorers
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