Tracing human roots

North and South America may have been populated in two different waves.

The Americas may have been initially settled in two different migrations, a new method for tracing human ancestry reveals. The analysis also suggests populations in the Orkney Islands, a string of islands north of Scotland, share substantial common ancestry with northern Siberian populations.

COUSINS? The Yakut people (left) of northern Siberia share some common ancestry with Orcadians (right), people who inhabit the Orkney Islands north of Scotland.