The first people to inhabit the Americas migrated from modern-day Russia about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, a new study has found.

Published on May 15 in the journal Science, the study suggests that the languages ​​and traditions of Indigenous groups living in the Americas today can be traced back to these early settlers. Traces of their cultures exist in the genes of modern Indigenous groups.

The study also found that the early settlers split into groups that became isolated in different environmental settings. The findings provide a new genetic and cultural understanding of present-day South American communities, said the researchers.

"[It fills] key gaps in our understanding of how the diverse populations of present-day South America came to be," said Elena Gusareva, the study's lead author, who is based at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Gusareva said the participants in the study had been "deeply motivated" to uncover their people's history, showing the importance of ancestral knowledge for people's identities.

The researcher cited an "urgent case"........

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