The genome sequence of a man who lived in what is modern Spain 7,000 years ago reveals that European hunter-gatherers were dark-skinned and blue-eyed.
This is an artist’s impression of a male hunter-gatherer who lived in what is modern Spain 7,000 years ago. Image credit: CSIC.
Two Mesolithic male skeletons, labeled La Brana-1 and La Brana-2, were discovered in a deep subterranean cave at the La Brana-Arintero site in León, Spain, in 2006. The individuals were dated to about 7,000 years ago.
Researchers led by Dr Carles Lalueza-Fox of Evolutionary Biology Institute in Barcelona focused first on La Brana-1 because it was in a better condition.
Surprisingly, an analysis of the hunter-gatherer’s genetic material showed that he had blue eyes.
“But the biggest surprise was to discover that this individual possessed African versions in the genes that determine the light pigmentation of the current Europeans, which indicates that he had dark skin,” said Dr Lalueza-Fox, who is the senior author of a paper published in the journal Nature.
When compared to today’s Europeans, La Brana-1 was found to be most closely genetically related to modern-day people in Sweden and Finland.
The findings also show that the man had a common ancestor with the settlers of the Upper Paleolithic site of Mal’ta, located near Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia.
“These data indicate that there is genetic continuity in the populations of central and western Eurasia. In fact, these data are consistent with the archeological remains, as in other excavations in Europe and Russia, including the site of Mal’ta, anthropomorphic figures – called Paleolithic Venus – have been recovered and they are very similar to each other,” Dr Lalueza-Fox said.
Interestingly, a significant number of gene variants associated with pathogen resistance in modern Europeans were already present in this hunter-gatherer.
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Olalde I et al. 2014. Derived immune and ancestral pigmentation alleles in a 7,000-year-old Mesolithic European. Nature, published online January 26, 2014; doi: 10.1038/nature12960
