An international team of geneticists has published a landmark study in Human Genetics Review regarding a 15,000-year-old skeleton found in a sea cave on Jeju Island. The genomic analysis reveals a previously unknown Pleistocene migration pulse that links the hunter-gatherers of the Amur River basin to the earliest 'Pre-Jomon' settlers of Japan.
This 'ghost lineage' clarifies the genetic transition that occurred at the end of the last Ice Age, showing that the ancestors of the Japanese archipelago's first culture migrated across land bridges that are now submerged. The study also identifies unique cold-adaptation genes that were critical for the survival of these maritime foragers as they moved southward into more temperate island environments.