Genes from 1st Americans match those from Australians

Genes from 1st Americans match those from Australians

A Xavánte man in Brazil, just after the traditional logs race that was part of the Native Peoples Meeting in September 2012. The Xavánte people were included in a new study about the genetic connection between people in South America and Oceana. A Xavánte man in Brazil, just after the traditional logs race that was part of the Native Peoples Meeting in September 2012. The Xavánte people were included in a new study about the genetic connection between people in South America and Oceana. (Image credit: Pedro Ladeira/AFP/GettyImages) When one of the waves of first Americans crossed the Bering Land Bridge and entered North America during the last ice age, they carried something special in their genes: pieces of ancestral Australasian DNA. The Australasians are the Indigenous peoples from Australia, Melanesia, New Guinea and the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.