Prehistoric genomes from Yunnan reveal ancestry related to Tibetans and Austroasiatic speakers

Tianyi Wang^#^{1

2}, Melinda A Yang^#³, Zhonghua Zhu^#^{4

5}, Minmin Ma^#⁶, Han Shi^{1

2}, Leo Speidel^{7

8}, Rui Min⁵, Haibing Yuan^{4

9}, Zhilong Jiang⁵, Changcheng Hu⁵, Xiaorui Li⁵, Dongyue Zhao¹⁰, Fan Bai^{1

2}, Peng Cao¹, Feng Liu¹, Qingyan Dai¹, Xiaotian Feng¹, Ruowei Yang¹, Xiaohong Wu¹¹, Xu Liu¹², Ming Zhang¹⁰, Wanjing Ping¹, Yichen Liu¹, Yang Wan⁵, Fan Yang⁵, Ranchao Zhou⁵, Lihong Kang⁵, Guanghui Dong^{6

13}, Mark Stoneking¹⁴, Qiaomei Fu^#^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
² University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA.
⁴ School of Archaeology and Museology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁵ Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Kunming, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
⁷ Genetics Institute, University College London, London, UK.
⁸ Ancient Genomics Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
⁹ Center for Archaeological Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
¹⁰ China-Central Asia "The Belt and Road" Joint Laboratory on Human and Environment Research, Key Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Research and Conservation, School of Culture Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
¹¹ School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
¹² Yunnan Museum, Kunming, China.
¹³ State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
¹⁴ Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR 5558, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, Villeurbanne, France.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 40440384
DOI: 10.1126/science.adq9792

Prehistoric genomes from Yunnan reveal ancestry related to Tibetans and Austroasiatic speakers

Tianyi Wang et al. Science. 2025.

. 2025 May 29;388(6750):eadq9792.

doi: 10.1126/science.adq9792. Epub 2025 May 29.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
² University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA.
⁴ School of Archaeology and Museology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁵ Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Kunming, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
⁷ Genetics Institute, University College London, London, UK.
⁸ Ancient Genomics Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
⁹ Center for Archaeological Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
¹⁰ China-Central Asia "The Belt and Road" Joint Laboratory on Human and Environment Research, Key Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Research and Conservation, School of Culture Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.
¹¹ School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
¹² Yunnan Museum, Kunming, China.
¹³ State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
¹⁴ Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR 5558, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, Villeurbanne, France.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 40440384
DOI: 10.1126/science.adq9792

Abstract

The human landscape in East and Southeast Asia is vastly complex, and successful retrieval of genome-wide data from prehistoric humans of southern East Asia is sparse. We successfully sampled 127 ancient human genomes from southwestern China. A 7100-year-old female individual from central Yunnan shows a previously unsampled Basal Asian ancestry related to a ghost population that contributed to Tibetan Plateau populations. Central Yunnan populations dating to 5500 to 1400 years before present show an East Asian ancestry distinct from northern or southern East Asian ancestries that contributed to present-day East and Southeast Asians, particularly Austroasiatic speakers, and emphasizes the importance of the Red River valley for proto-Austroasiatic population history. Diverse Asian ancestries are represented in humans sampled from Yunnan, clarifying past population dynamics related to both Tibetan and Austroasiatic origins.

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Prehistoric genomes from Yunnan reveal ancestry related to Tibetans and Austroasiatic speakers

Affiliations

Prehistoric genomes from Yunnan reveal ancestry related to Tibetans and Austroasiatic speakers

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

MeSH terms

Substances

Supplementary concepts

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Miscellaneous