Biology subjects

Micco, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Micco, A..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Long-term hunter-gatherer continuity in the Rhine-Meuse region was disrupted by local formation of expansive Bell Beaker groups

The first phase of the ancient DNA revolution painted a broad-brush picture of European Holocene prehistory, whereby 6500-4000 BCE, farmers descending from western Anatolians mixed with local hunter-gatherers resulting in 70-100% ancestry turnover, then 3000-2500 BCE people associated with the Corded Ware complex spread steppe ancestry into north-central Europe. We document an exception to this pattern in the wider Rhine-Meuse area in communities in the wetlands, riverine areas, and coastal areas of the western and central Netherlands, Belgium and western Germany, where we assembled genome-wide data for 109 people 8500-1700 BCE. Here, a distinctive population with high hunter-gatherer ancestry ([~]50%) persisted up to three thousand years later than in continental European regions, reflecting limited incorporation of females of Early European Farmer ancestry into local communities. In the western Netherlands, the arrival of the Corded Ware complex was also exceptional: lowland individuals from settlements adopting Corded Ware pottery had hardly any steppe ancestry, despite a characteristic early Corded Ware Y-chromosome. The limited influx may reflect the unique ecology of the regions river-dominated landscapes, which were not amenable to wholesale adoption of the early Neolithic type of farming introduced by Linearbandkeramik, making it possible for previously established groups to thrive, and creating a persistent but permeable boundary that allowed transfer of ideas and low-level gene flow. This changed with the formation-through-mixture of Bell Beaker using populations [~]2500 BCE by fusion of local Rhine-Meuse people (9-17%) and Corded Ware associated migrants of both sexes. Their expansion from the Rhine-Meuse region then had a disruptive impact across a much wider part of northwest Europe, including Britain where its arrival was the main source of a 90-100% replacement of local Neolithic peoples.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2024

A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age

The north Black Sea (Pontic) Region was the nexus of the farmers of Old Europe and the foragers and pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe1,2, and the source of waves of migrants that expanded deep into Europe3-5. We report genome-wide data from 78 prehistoric North Pontic individuals to understand the genetic makeup of the people involved in these migrations and discover the reasons for their success. First, we show that native North Pontic foragers had ancestry not only from Balkan and Eastern hunter-gatherers6 but also from European farmers and, occasionally, Caucasus hunter-gatherers. More dramatic inflows ensued during the Eneolithic, when migrants from the Caucasus-Lower Volga area7 moved westward, bypassing the local foragers to mix with Trypillian farmers advancing eastward. People of the Usatove archaeological group in the Northwest Pontic were formed ca. 4500 BCE with an equal measure of ancestry from the two expanding groups. A different Caucasus-Lower Volga group, moving westward in a distinct but temporally overlapping wave, avoided the farmers altogether, and blended with the foragers instead to form the people of the Serednii Stih archaeological complex7. A third wave of expansion occurred when Yamna descendants of the Serednii Stih forming ca. 4000 BCE expanded during the Early Bronze Age (3300 BCE). The temporal gap between Serednii Stih and the Yamna expansion is bridged by a genetically Yamna individual from Mykhailivka in Ukraine (3635-3383 BCE), a site of uninterrupted archaeological continuity across the Eneolithic-Bronze Age transition, and the likely epicenter of Yamna formation. Each of these three waves propagated distinctive ancestries while also incorporating outsiders during its advance, a flexible strategy forged in the North Pontic region that may explain its peoples outsized success in spreading their genes and culture across Eurasia3-5,8-10.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

Social and genetic diversity in first farmers of central Europe

The Linearbandkeramik (LBK) Neolithic communities were the first to spread farming across large parts of central Europe, settling fertile regions from Ukraine to France during the second half of the 6th millennium BCE. The LBK had a high degree of material culture uniformity, albeit with regional differences in settlement patterns, subsistence, and mortuary practices. To date, ancient DNA data from LBK individuals have been generated for a limited number of locations and often in small sample sizes, making it challenging to study variation within and across sites. We report genome-wide data for 178 LBK individuals, from the Alfold Linearbankeramik Culture (ALPC) eastern LBK site of Polgar-Ferenci-hat in Hungary, the western LBK site of Nitra in Slovakia, and the enclosed western LBK settlement and massacre site of Schletz in Austria, as well as 42 LBK individuals from 18 other sites. We also report genome-wide data for 28 Early Neolithic Koros and Star[c]evo individuals from 13 sites, viewed as the predecessors of the LBK. We observe a higher percentage of western hunter-gatherer (WHG) admixture among individuals in the eastern LBK than in the far more widely distributed western LBK, showing that these two archaeologically distinct cultures also had different genetic trajectories. Most WHG-farmer mixture occurred just before the dawn of the LBK culture and there is no evidence that the WHG ancestry came systematically more from males or females. However, we do find strong genetic evidence for patrilocality among the LBK, extending previous findings based on isotopic analysis, with more genetic structure across sites on the male than on the female line, and a higher rate of within-site relatives for males. At Schletz we detect almost no first-degree relatives despite reporting data from almost every skeleton present at the site, showing that this massacre involved people from a large population, not a small community.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

The Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR): A curated compendium of ancient human genomes

More than two hundred papers have reported genome-wide data from ancient humans. While the raw data for the vast majority are fully publicly available testifying to the commitment of the paleogenomics community to open data, formats for both raw data and meta-data differ. There is thus a need for uniform curation and a centralized, version-controlled compendium that researchers can download, analyze, and reference. Since 2019, we have been maintaining the Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR), which aims to provide an up-to-date, curated version of the worlds published ancient human DNA data, represented at more than a million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at which almost all ancient individuals have been assayed. The AADR has gone through six public releases since it first was made available and crossed the threshold of >10,000 ancient individuals with genome-wide data at the end of 2022. This note is intended as a citable description of the AADR.

genomics↗