Subsistence transition preceded population turnover in the eastern Colombian Andes.

Maize consumption emerged in the eastern Colombian Andes without replacing local ancestry: two ~2,800 years BP individuals retain autochthonous lineage while isotopes indicate maize use.

• Why it matters: The Altiplano Cundiboyacense sequence links cultural shifts to demographic change, but it was unclear whether subsistence transitions required population turnover.
• What they did: Genome-wide data from 212 individuals across 7,000+ years were analyzed alongside isotopic evidence, comparing early groups, initial late Holocene mixed-economy groups, and later Herrera and Muisca periods.
• The result: A lineage predating Herrera persisted for five millennia with drift in small groups and no external gene flow, while a sharp genetic break around ~2,000 BP aligns with Herrera emergence and migration.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.