Ancestry of modern Europeans: contributions of ancient DNA
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Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences
REVIEW
Ancestry of modern Europeans: contributions of ancient DNA Marie Lacan • Christine Keyser • Eric Crube´zy Bertrand Ludes
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Received: 5 April 2012 / Revised: 21 September 2012 / Accepted: 24 September 2012 Ó Springer Basel 2012
Abstract Understanding the peopling history of Europe is crucial to comprehend the origins of modern populations. Of course, the analysis of current genetic data offers several explanations about human migration patterns which occurred on this continent, but it fails to explain precisely the impact of each demographic event. In this context, direct access to the DNA of ancient specimens allows the overcoming of recent demographic phenomena, which probably highly modified the constitution of the current European gene pool. In recent years, several DNA studies have been successfully conducted from ancient human remains thanks to the improvement of molecular techniques. They have brought new fundamental information on the peopling of Europe and allowed us to refine our understanding of European prehistory. In this review, we will detail all the ancient DNA studies performed to date on ancient European DNA from the Middle Paleolithic to the beginning of the protohistoric period. Keywords Paleogenetics European prehistory Neanderthal Neolithic transition Introduction Located at the western extremity of the Eurasian subcontinent, Europe is a geographical area without well-defined M. Lacan (&) C. Keyser E. Crube´zy B. Ludes Laboratoire AMIS, CNRS UMR 5288, 37 Alle´es Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse cedex 3, France e-mail: [email protected] M. Lacan C. Keyser B. Ludes Laboratoire d’Anthropologie mole´culaire, CNRS UMR 5288, Universite´ de Strasbourg, Institut de Me´decine Le´gale, 11 rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg, France
boundaries. Directly connected with Asia or northern Africa through the Mediterranean Sea or the Middle East, this continent was populated during prehistoric times by several waves of human migration. Despite the countless archeological data collected during the last century, the impact of each migration on modern populations remains misunderstood. According to archeological records, the first signs of occupation in Europe date back to the Pleistocene as evidenced by the presence of the oldest remains attributed to Homo antecessor [1] (site of the Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain, 1.2 Mya). Then, during the Middle Paleolithic from approximately 350,000 to 30,000 years, the region was occupied by Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) [2]. Finally, anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), arrived 45,000 years ago [3]. They are the only hominin species still present on the continent. If current Europeans are clearly the descendants of these first anatomically modern humans, many questions remain. Firstly, the possibility of interbreeding with Neanderthals has been suggested [4]. Moreover, several population movements took place during European prehistory and their impact is not c
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