title: The genetic history of Ice Age Europe.
abstract: Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. Here we analyse genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3-6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas there is no evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe contributing to the genetic composition of present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. An ~35,000-year-old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, IVPP, CAS, Beijing 100044, China.|Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Qiaomei
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authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.|Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Cosimo
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authors.lastname: Posth
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.lastname: Hajdinjak
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.lastname: Petr
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
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authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
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authors.lastname: Furtwängler
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany.|Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA-5005 Adelaide, Australia.
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authors.lastname: Haak
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.|Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Alissa
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authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, 48121 Ravenna, Italy.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Department of Archaeology, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark.
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authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, 72072 Tübingen, Germany.|Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, 72072 Tübingen, Germany.|Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Paleoanthropology, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany.|Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany.|Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, 72072 Tübingen, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
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mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D018703:Founder Effect; D005828:Genetics, Population; D049690:History, Ancient; D063426:Human Migration / Q000266:history; D006801:Humans; D046448:Ice Cover; D008297:Male; D008877:Middle East; D059125:Neanderthals / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013997:Time Factors; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics* / Q000266:history*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA