The Prehistoric Colonization of the Americas: Evidence and Models

Abstract

A review was made of studies which considered the prehistoric colonization of the Americas. It included simulation models based on linguistic and genetic data, archeological and paleoanthropological information, as well as genetic and genomic empirical results. At the end, two examples of research performed by our group were presented: the first on the association between the 7R dopamine receptor D4 allele and migration, and the second on the distribution of 11 short tandem repeat loci in 30 South Amerindian populations, relating the pattern found with historical events and language dispersion.