A breakthrough paleogenomic study published in Nature Genetics has revealed a unique evolutionary adaptation in early South American hunter-gatherers. Geneticists analyzing 10,000-year-old skeletal remains from the Lagoa Santa region in Brazil have identified a high frequency of alleles associated with accelerated tissue repair and enhanced wound-healing proteins. This represents the earliest known genetic evidence of selection for rapid biological recovery in a Pleistocene population.
Researchers suggest that this adaptation was likely a response to the high-risk, high-biodiversity environments of the Holocene transition, where minor injuries could lead to lethal infections. By comparing the ancient DNA with modern indigenous sequences, the team mapped a specific gene cluster that regulates extracellular matrix remodeling, which appears significantly more active in the ancient samples than in contemporaneous European or Asian hunter-gatherers.