Dec. 26, 2024
Ancient DNA results … Climate Change … and Data Driven Science versus Guesses & Handwaving**
Walkers versus Boat-People:
When faced with dramatically rising sea levels, from Climate Change … Whom would you choose to join?
Walk the 12,000 km (7,500 miles) from Russia to Mexico … or paddle your boat … or even hoist a sail?
According to the latest studies of ancient human DNA from Mexico, the first human civilizations to populate the Americas were the Central and South American peoples – by ancient Siberians and by Sundaland-ers* … using boats … The latest DNA results show that first colonizations most-likely took place at least 30,000 to 40,000 years ago**, which is much earlier than anthropologists’ & archeologists’ previous GUESSES.
Appearing & Disappearing Land Masses, Due to Ice Ages and Climate Change:
Sundaland was an ancient extension of the SE Asian continent corresponding to present-day Indonesia and surrounding islands … just like Doggerland … Both Sundaland & Doggerland disappeared due to rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age … as Climate Change forcing ancient humans to move.
*… where Sundaland was an extension of the Malay Peninsula, and Doggerland was the big area connecting the British Isles to Continental Europe … and Climate Change forced both sets of ancient peoples to move
… as Climate Change created the Islanders we now call Brits … and Climate Change also created the first “Americans” …
Why care about Sundaland?
2023 DNA results published by Nanyang Tech. Institute (2023) in the Journal Nature (see below) …. show that South & Central Americans not only were the FIRST HUMANS to come to the Americas**, but that they came from Sundaland. In the Nature study, high-coverage whole-genome data generated by the GenomeAsia 100 K consortium29 for 763 individuals were derived from 59 ethnic groups that are native to Southeast and South Asia with European populations as reference groups – as the genetic basis for characterize Sundalanders.
CLIMATE CHANGE Driving Human Migrations:
Because Sundaland DISAPPEARED due to rising sea levels … the Sundalanders were forced to move … as some of them took to boats … and SAILED to AMERICA … at least 30,000 years ago.
Next:
**Pair the Sundaland DNA results & Siberian Inupiat DNA results with Mexican researchers results (from Nature, 2020) on ancient human remains from the Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico, plus comparably ancient findings in the Chiapas highlands, Central Mexico, and the Caribbean coast … and the results show that modern humans occupied various parts of Mexico at least 27,000 YEARS AGO … LONG before any previous anthropologists’ & archeologists’ previous ~GUESSES~ that ~”humans supposedly walked from Siberian” just “12,000 – 14,000 years ago”~ .
Guessing & Hand-Waving … versus Data Driven Science:
DNA studies of American Natives reveal that the Sundaland DNA data shows that the Sundalanders were the “mother people” … and that the Inupiat Siberians were the “father people” of those first “Americans” who colonized Mexico, Central America & South America between 27,000 – 40,000 yrs ago … Meanwhile the walkers from Siberia came over to North America a full 13,000 – 27,000 years later.
Using data-driven factual analyses… The simplest calculations show that:
“It takes centuries, or millennia, for (walking) people to cross Beringia and arrive in the middle of Mexico.”
Yet : “It (then) takes many years of previous presence for (even boat people) to get to inland points in Mexico & the Caribbean coast, (even) if they came (to Mexico) by sea … ”
per Dr. Ciprian Ardelean
… This DNA evidence means that humans were likely in Central America long before 30,000 years ago … and they came by boat, from Sundaland … and by boat from Siberian Inupiat peoples.
Why are the Two Ancient American Population Sources Important?
These latest DNA results show that those EARLIEST native peoples of Central and South America come from two distinct ancestral groups. The latest DNA evidence shows that they have both a “mother people,” who are identified as “population Y,” (the original inhabitants of Sundaland) …. and ancient DNA results show they have a “father people,” (“population X”) … from the Iñupiat peoples of Siberia.
…
So … Just like how 97% of Carl Sagan’s GUESSES that he told people – as supposed “science”, and 98% of Einstein’s GUESSES that he told people as supposed “science” … has been proven factually wrong by modern DATA-DRIVEN science.
REAL modern science … driven by data … is exposing just how much of 1950’s-1970’s supposed “Science” were just elaborate GUESSES … that were very very wrong.
😉
Dr. Steven M. Fry
Ph.D. in Science
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-04510-0
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2509-0
https://scelse.sg/scelse-pi-honoured-with-outstanding-woman-researcher-award/
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read on, MacDuff.
Surviving Yucatan 
Very cool details, but with a very odd headline.
I loved Thor Heyerdahl’s KON-TIKI which I read in high school. But I really regret missing a chance to meet him when he was preparing his RA reed boat in Morocco, to sail to the “new world”. (I was only a hundred miles away, but would have needed to take leave to go there.) His first attempt was a failure, I seem to recall, but RA-2 made it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl, mostly.
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I can’t imagine people that long ago constructing boats and sailing so far. I wonder, how many started and how many arrived? How did they not die of scurvy? How were they able to carry enough food? Such an amazing distance!
Fun questions!
Let’s consider some basic scientific facts:
We don’t have any good evidence of scurvy among traditional Polynesian sailors. This isn’t surprising, considering the following two factors:
The durations of most ancient Polynesian people’s sea voyages were less than the time of the of onset of scurvy … and … Polynesians ate very different FAR MORE HEALTHFUL diets, that were rich in Vitiman C-rich foods …
Duration of their Voyages:
Most single-leg voyages were 500 nautical miles (nm) or shorter.
Very few were longer than 1300 naut. mi. … A typical voyaging canoe averaged about 4 knots, covering roughly 100 naut. mi (nm) per day.
With typical weather conditions, most voyages were only 5 days, or less. => Not long enough for scurvy to become an issue.
Very long voyages at average speeds would have taken about 2 weeks … and as expert sea-farers, their long voyages made use of favourable prevailing winds, so it’s reasonable to expect that they maintained the typical average speeds … or better … for most voyages … making even the longer voyages only 5 or 6 weeks in duration.
By comparison: Major symptoms of scurvy typically appear between 8-12 weeks into vitamin C deprivation, so significant scurvy is not expected for Polynesian voyages, even if the provisions carried were very low in vitamin C.
Provisions:
Much of the food carried provided superb amounts of vitamin C. Their foods included fresh sweet potatoes, taro, breadfruit, bananas, yams, and coconuts. Most of these keep longer than just a few days, so fresh food like lasted through their short voyages. Sweet potatoes, taro, yams, and breadfruit were also be fermented &/or dried, to keep keep for longer periods – over 100 years in the case of fermented breadfruit, if old reports are to be believed).
Fermentation & drying are carried out after cooking, eliminating any need to cook such provisions on board.
Though it’s worth noting that a voyaging canoe would typical include a coral or stone lined hearth, for on-board cooking, but food that didn’t need cooking would still have been useful in bad weather, and if firewood (often coconut husks) ran out.
Dried fish (and other dried seafood) provided animal protein.
Thus, their shipboard diets were typically much higher in vitamin C than the scurvy-inducing European sailors diet of hardtack (ship’s biscuit) and salted meat.
Together, the relatively short voyages (compared to multi-month European voyages) and more vitamin C rich provisions means much lower incidence of scurvy.
IOW … The lack of reports of scurvy among Polynesian voyagers is quite credible … as a reflection of their far lower scurvy risks.
Cheers,
Dr. Steven M. Fry
Excellent article!!!