🇦🇷 An ancient Argentine lineage that stayed local for millennia

Ancient DNA from 238 individuals across Argentina reveals a previously unknown central-Argentina lineage that appears by ~8,500 years ago and persists with little outside input for thousands of years. The earliest Pampas genome (~10,000 years ago) already looks distinct from the Andes and Brazil.

Over time, central-Argentina ancestry spreads south: it’s in the Pampas by ~3,300 years ago and becomes the main component there after ~800 years ago. Elsewhere, it mixes regionally with Andean groups in the northwest and forest groups in the Gran Chaco, while a Guaraní-linked individual in the Paraná Delta (~400 years ago) points to late movements from Brazil.

Takeaway: Central Argentina carried a deep, local ancestry that shaped much of the Southern Cone, later diffusing into neighbors rather than being replaced.

Source: Maravall-López et al., 2025. Eight millennia of continuity of a previously unknown lineage in Argentina.