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. 2023 Apr;7(4):597-609.
doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-01987-0. Epub 2023 Mar 1.

A 23,000-year-old southern Iberian individual links human groups that lived in Western Europe before and after the Last Glacial Maximum

Vanessa Villalba-Mouco  1   2   3 , Marieke S van de Loosdrecht  4   5 , Adam B Rohrlach  6   7 , Helen Fewlass  8 , Sahra Talamo  8   9 , He Yu  6   10 , Franziska Aron  4 , Carles Lalueza-Fox  11   12 , Lidia Cabello  13 , Pedro Cantalejo Duarte  14 , José Ramos-Muñoz  15 , Cosimo Posth  6   16   17 , Johannes Krause  6 , Gerd-Christian Weniger  18 , Wolfgang Haak  19
Affiliations

A 23,000-year-old southern Iberian individual links human groups that lived in Western Europe before and after the Last Glacial Maximum

Vanessa Villalba-Mouco et al. Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Human populations underwent range contractions during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) which had lasting and dramatic effects on their genetic variation. The genetic ancestry of individuals associated with the post-LGM Magdalenian technocomplex has been interpreted as being derived from groups associated with the pre-LGM Aurignacian. However, both these ancestries differ from that of central European individuals associated with the chronologically intermediate Gravettian. Thus, the genomic transition from pre- to post-LGM remains unclear also in western Europe, where we lack genomic data associated with the intermediate Solutrean, which spans the height of the LGM. Here we present genome-wide data from sites in Andalusia in southern Spain, including from a Solutrean-associated individual from Cueva del Malalmuerzo, directly dated to ~23,000 cal yr BP. The Malalmuerzo individual carried genetic ancestry that directly connects earlier Aurignacian-associated individuals with post-LGM Magdalenian-associated ancestry in western Europe. This scenario differs from Italy, where individuals associated with the transition from pre- and post-LGM carry different genetic ancestries. This suggests different dynamics in the proposed southern refugia of Ice Age Europe and posits Iberia as a potential refugium for western European pre-LGM ancestry. More, individuals from Cueva Ardales, which were thought to be of Palaeolithic origin, date younger than expected and, together with individuals from the Andalusian sites Caserones and Aguilillas, fall within the genetic variation of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age individuals from southern Iberia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Chronological and geographical overview of newly reported and relevant published individuals.
a, Geographical distribution of Pleistocene individuals with genome-wide data (>20,000 SNPs covered in the 1,240,000 SNP panel; coloured symbols, consistent with individuals and symbols on the y axis of b). b, Chronological distribution of Pleistocene individuals with genome data. The grey bar indicates the extent of the LGM (*Zlatý kůň is dated genetically to ~45 kyr bp) (ref. ). c, Genetic overview of the western and central Europe UP and their correspondence with technocomplexes (where possible). Arrows with dashed lines show gaps in the genetic record. See Supplementary Table 1.1 for a detailed description of the individuals.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Genetic affinity of the MLZ individual and genetic structure among HGs.
a, MDS plot of the pairwise f3-matrix of the form f3(HG1, HG2; Mbuti) (Supplementary Fig. 1) transformed into distances using 1 − f3. The main genetic clusters mentioned in the paper are highlighted here. b, The f4-statistics of the form f4(GoyetQ2 cluster, GoyetQ116-1; MLZ, Mbuti) show a significant affinity between Magdalenian-associated individuals and MLZ when compared to Goyet Q116-1 (Supplementary Table 2.1). c, The f4-statistics of the form f4(MLZ, GoyetQ2 cluster; GoyetQ116-1, Mbuti) show that MLZ and Magdalenian-associated individuals are not symmetrically related to Goyet Q116-1 and that MLZ shares more genetic drift with Goyet Q116-1 (Supplementary Table 2.2). d, The f4-symmetry tests of the form f4(MLZ, GoyetQ2 cluster; Věstonice16, Mbuti), where Věstonice 16 is symmetrically related to MLZ and Magdalenian-associated individuals. e, The f4-symmetry tests of the form f4(MLZ, GoyetQ116-1; Věstonice cluster, Mbuti), including other central European, Gravettian-associated individuals, who are symmetrically related to MLZ and Goyet Q116-1. Both tests (d and e) do not deviate from 0 and thus show that there is no excess of shared drift between MLZ/GoyetQ116-1 and central European, Gravettian-associated individuals (Supplementary Tables 2.3 and 2.4). For all f4-statistics, error bars indicate ±3 s.e. and were calculated using a weighted block jackknife across all autosomes on the 1,240,000 panel (nSNPs = 1,150,639) and a block size of 5 megabases (Mb); | Z | > 3 points with thicker outline.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Attraction of MLZ to old UP individuals.
a, The f4-statistics of the form f4(MLZ, Kostenki14; test, Mbuti) show significant positive affinity of MLZ to IUP Bacho Kiro, Tianyuan and Aurignacian Goyet Q116-1 (Supplementary Table 2.5). b, The f4-statistics of the form f4(test, Kostenki14; Tianyuan, Mbuti) show significant positive affinity of MLZ and Goyet Q116-1 to Tianyuan (Supplementary Table 2.6). For all f4-statistics, error bars indicate ± 3 s.e. and were calculated using a weighted block jackknife across all autosomes on the 1,240,000 panel (nSNPs = 1,150,639) and a block size of 5 Mb; | Z | > 3 points with thicker outline.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Testing for the presence of Near Eastern ancestry in MLZ.
a, Differential genetic affinity of Pleistocene European HG and Iberian Holocene HG with Natufian and Villabruna-like ancestry calculated using f4(test, Kostenki14; Natufian, Mbuti) shown as green circles, and f4(test, Kostenki14; Villabruna, Mbuti) shown as blue circles. Bold outlines indicate significant f4-statistics | Z | > 3 (Supplementary Table 2.10). Results show that MLZ is the only Pleistocene HG that indicated a significant and equal attraction to both Natufian and Villabruna-like ancestries. b, The f4-statistics of the form f4(MLZ, GoyetQ116-1; Villabruna/Natufian/Morocco Iberomaurusian, Chimp/Mbuti), used to identify the group that shared most genetic drift with the MLZ lineage (Supplementary Table 2.14). For all f4-statistics, error bars indicate ± 3 s.e. and were calculated using a weighted block jackknife across all autosomes on the 1,240,000 panel (nSNPs = 1,150,639) and a block size of 5 Mb; | Z | > 3 points with thicker outline. ka, thousand years ago.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. Traces of deep IUP ancestry in Holocene HGs.
a, The f4-statistics of the form f4(test, Kostenki14; Tianyuan, Mbuti) show affinity of Moita do Sebastião (non-significant) and EHGs (significant) to Tianyuan (Supplementary Table 2.6). Error bars indicate ± 3 s.e. and were calculated using a weighted block jackknife across all autosomes on the 1,240,000 panel (nSNPs = 1,150,639) and a block size of 5 Mb; | Z | > 3 points with thicker outline. b, The f3-outgroup statistics of the form f3(Tianyuan, test; Mbuti) measuring the shared genetic drift between the test population and Tianyuan, highlighting Moita do Sebastião as the Mesolithic Iberian HG with highest shared genetic drift with Tianyuan, indicative of genetic continuity from the Solutrean period in Southern Iberia. Similar f3-outgroup statistics results were obtained for EHGs (Supplementary Table 2.15).
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