Ancient DNA from ancient Canarian Islanders illuminates the prehistory of North Africa and evidences the effects of insularity on human populations.
The indigenous population of the Canary Islands, which colonized the archipelago around the 3rd century CE, provides both a window into the past of North Africa and a unique model to explore the effects of insularity. We generated genome-wide data from 40 samples from the seven islands, dated between the 3rd – 16th centuries CE. Along with components already present in Moroccan Neolithic populations, the Canarian natives show signatures related to Bronze Age expansions in Eurasia and trans-Saharan migrations. The lack of gene flow between islands and constant or decreasing effective population sizes suggest that populations were isolated. While some island populations maintained relatively high genetic diversity, with the only detected bottleneck coinciding with the colonization time, other islands with fewer natural resources show the effects of insularity and isolation. Finally, consistent genetic differentiation between eastern and western islands points to a more complex colonization process than previously thought.