The settlement of Europe: Population genetic history of Pleistocene modern humans in Europe

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Ancient DNA research offers a great potential to gain insights into genetic relationships and population structure of extinct human populations. Despite a tremendous amount of genetic information that has recently become available from extinct humans such as Neandertals and Denisovans, very little is known about the genetic structure of Pleistocene modern humans that were contemporary with both extinct hominins, such as the European Cro-Magnon that colonized Europe about 35,000 years ago. However, population genetic data from Pleistocene modern humans plays a key role in understanding the complex picture emerging from the ancient human genetic data that involves gene flow between different Pleistocene hominins, genetic bottlenecks and extinctions. Using recently established DNA capture approaches in combination with high-throughput sequencing, we will generate in this project population genetic data from a large set of Pleistocene early modern humans from Europe and Western Asia. To establish the authenticity of the ancient modern human DNA, we will apply a recently published protocol that enables the verification of ancient DNA based on DNA damage and degradation patterns. This project will thus provide us with direct insights into the population history of Cro-Magnon and the settlement of Europe by modern humans that are not addressable with traditional archaeological approaches.