Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28938123›Full record

ArticleCell2017

Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure.

Pontus Skoglund, Jessica C Thompson, Mary E Prendergast, Alissa Mittnik, Kendra Sirak, Mateja Hajdinjak, Tasneem Salie, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Alexander Peltzer and 34 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Cell, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 188 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
188citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

188 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Pan-African model explainsbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Global patterns of natural selection inferred using ancient DNA.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review

128 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

44 authors.

Pontus SkoglundDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: skoglund@genetics.med.harvard.edu.
Jessica C ThompsonDepartment of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Mary E PrendergastRadcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Alissa MittnikMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany; Institute for Archeological Sciences, Eberhard-Karls-University, Tuebingen 72070, Germany.
Kendra SirakDepartment of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA; School of Archaeology and Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Mateja HajdinjakMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
Tasneem SalieDivision of Human Genetics, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa.
Nadin RohlandDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Swapan MallickDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Alexander PeltzerMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany; Integrative Transcriptomics, Centre for Bioinformatics, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen 72076, Germany.
Anja HeinzeMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
Iñigo OlaldeDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Matthew FerryDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Eadaoin HarneyDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Megan MichelDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Kristin StewardsonDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Jessica I Cerezo-RománDepartment of Geography and Anthropology, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Pomona, CA 91768, USA.
Chrissy ChiumiaMalawi Department of Museums and Monuments, Lilongwe 3, Malawi.
Alison CrowtherMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany; School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
Elizabeth Gomani-ChindebvuMalawi Department of Museums and Monuments, Lilongwe 3, Malawi.
Agness O GidnaNational Museums of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Katherine M GrilloDepartment of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, La Crosse, WI 54601, USA.
I Taneli HeleniusDepartment of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Garrett HellenthalDepartment of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Richard HelmCanterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury CT1 2LU, UK.
Mark HortonDepartment Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UU, UK.
Saioa LópezDepartment of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Audax Z P MabullaNational Museums of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
John ParkingtonDepartment of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7700, South Africa.
Ceri ShiptonMcDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK; British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi 30710, Kenya.
Mark G ThomasDepartment of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Ruth TibesasaDepartment of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0083, South Africa.
Menno WellingAfrican Studies Centre Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden 2300 RB, Netherlands; African Heritage Ltd, Zomba, Malawi.
Vanessa M HayesGenomics and Epigenetics Division, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia; Central Clinical School, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia; School of Health Systems and Public Health, University of Pretoria, Gezina 0031, South Africa.
Douglas J KennettDepartment of Anthropology and Institutes for Energy and the Environment, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Raj RamesarDivision of Human Genetics, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa.
Matthias MeyerMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
Svante PääboMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
Nick PattersonRadcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Alan G MorrisDepartment of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7700, South Africa.
Nicole BoivinMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany.
Ron PinhasiSchool of Archaeology and Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland; Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Johannes KrauseMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany; Institute for Archeological Sciences, Eberhard-Karls-University, Tuebingen 72070, Germany.
David ReichDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu.

Funding

Methods for Genome-wide Association Studies in Admixed PopulationsR01HG006399 · NHGRI · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI PRICE, ALKES L · 2011 to 2024
$6.3M
Population mixture in evolutionary and medical geneticsR01GM100233 · NIGMS · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · PI PATTERSON, NICK J, REICH, DAVID E · 2012 to 2019
$2.7M
European Research Council 263441NHGRI NIH HHS R01 HG006399NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM100233Wellcome Trust
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We assembled genome-wide data from 16 prehistoric Africans. We show that the anciently divergent lineage that comprises the primary ancestry of the southern African San had a wider distribution in the past, contributing approximately two-thirds of the ancestry of Malawi hunter-gatherers ∼8,100-2,500 years ago and approximately one-third of the ancestry of Tanzanian hunter-gatherers ∼1,400 years ago. We document how the spread of farmers from western Africa involved complete replacement of local hunter-gatherers in some regions, and we track the spread of herders by showing that the population of a ∼3,100-year-old pastoralist from Tanzania contributed ancestry to people from northeastern to southern Africa, including a ∼1,200-year-old southern African pastoralist. The deepest diversifications of African lineages were complex, involving either repeated gene flow among geographically disparate groups or a lineage more deeply diverging than that of the San contributing more to some western African populations than to others. We finally leverage ancient genomes to document episodes of natural selection in southern African populations. PAPERCLIP.

Indexed as

Genome, HumanAfricaBlack PeopleBone and BonesDNA, AncientFemaleFossilsGenetics, MedicalGenetics, PopulationGenome-Wide Association StudyHumansLife StyleMaleDNA, AncientadaptationAfricaancient DNAhunter-gatherersnatural selectionpopulation geneticspopulation history

Identifiers

PMID28938123
PMCPMC5679310

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