Advances in the analysis of ancient DNA have upended the scientific community’s view of how human populations migrated both into and around the North and South American continents, illustrating the rapid and complex movement of humanity into the western hemisphere towards the end of the last ice age. Aside from unraveling more of the mystery of the origins of the Americas’ first inhabitants, the studies also aided in the repatriation of a long-lost ancestor of a Native American tribe in Nevada, and the discovery of an individual with DNA from Australia that lived on the east coast of modern-day Brazil — over 10,000 years ago.
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A new expedition to explore the Mayan complex at Chichen Itza has been launched, that will include studying the 1,000-year-old Temple of Kukulkan, and the landscape’s numerous sinkholes. The expedition’s aim is an attempt to uncover the secrets of a mysterious underworld that is supposed to exist there according to Mayan oral history. This is the first comprehensive exploration of the site in roughly half a century.
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