The Lost Lineage of the Pampas: How Ancient DNA Rewrites 8,500 Years of Argentinian Prehistory

A Genetic Shadow Beneath the Pampas

For decades, archaeologists and geneticists have tried to piece together how the last reaches of South America were peopled. The sweeping plains of central Argentina—where the Andes dissolve into grassland and the rivers braid across the Pampas—were among the final frontiers of human expansion. Yet, despite the region’s archaeological richness, its genetic past has remained stubbornly opaque.

Overview of geographical and temporal sampling. a, The geographical distribution of newly reported (black edges) and selected previously published (golden edges) early South American ancient individuals. The map was created in R using open-source data. b, The temporal distribution of newly reported and selected published (below the dashed line) ancient individuals. For each grouping, the number at the right end of the bar indicates the sample size, and the dark fill of the bar indicates the proportion with a direct radiocarbon date. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09731-3

That changed with a study published in Nature¹ by an international team of researchers led by Javier Maravall-López and colleagues across Argentina, Brazil, and Europe. Their analysis of more than 230 ancient genomes, spanning nearly 10,000 years, has uncovered a startling discovery: a deep genetic lineage in central Argentina that has persisted for at least 8,500 years, surviving every upheaval that followed.

“This is one of the clearest examples of long-term genetic continuity yet documented in the Americas,” says Dr. Elena Rossi, a population geneticist at Cambridge University. “It suggests not only resilience but also cultural stability over millennia, in a landscape shaped by climate and change.”

The finding reshapes how scientists understand the peopling of the Southern Cone, revealing a continuity of ancestry that withstood the passage of time—from the first hunter-gatherers to the farmers and herders who met the colonial world.