Challenging the Paradigm: New Pleistocene Data on First Americans Forces Reassessment of Single Origin Migration Models – The Rise of the ‘Zero Wave’ Hypothesis (2025)
Figure Right: Recent discoveries, including the 22,000-year-old (median age) footprints in New Mexico and Australasian DNA elements (Population Y) in South America, demonstrate that the dispersal solely after the Beringia standstill is insufficient for explanation. This necessitates the consideration of hypotheses based on a “Zero-Wave and Subsequent Waves” multi-layered model.
It is entirely inappropriate to exclude the Sojin (Jomon ancestors/predecessors) from this discourse, especially when considering the focused attention on the South American Population Y—a lineage not found in North American Natives. The Sojin are estimated to have continued northward approximately 30,000 years ago from “East Hokkaido Gateway ” and possessed the necessary adaptability for ice-age coastal environments, despite the finding that Jomon DNA and tooth samples from a few thousand years ago do not align with North American Natives. The academic community must urgently break away from the conventional Single Siberian Origin Model.
The World is Amazed by the Jomon’s Minimal Denisovan DNA… But the Real Surprise Isn’t There!
Left Image/Point: People in the Andaman Sea region also show “almost zero” Denisovan DNA. When mapping the extent of admixture from inland Denisovans, a pattern emerges: the expansion of coastal route peoples (from the Andaman Sea to “The Mediterranean of East Asia”) becomes clear. This raises the question: Who were the people who migrated south along “the southern coast of Beringia,” relying on boats and a marine diet in the harsh, icy northern seas?
Right Image/Point: Recent research on the New Mexico footprints and South American DNA has shifted the paradigm and brought the “latest coastal migration theory” back into the spotlight. However, considering the conditions of life in the northern sea—where refugia were estimated to be up to 100km apart—it is highly improbable that Siberian hunter-gatherers could have immediately adapted and migrated south. We should be looking closely at the ancestors of the Hokkaido people, Sojin!
The latest debate on the “first” Americans strongly supports a Pacific coastal route of migration. Key evidence includes the Monte Verde site in Chile (marine algae use) and the White Sands footprints (dated to 22,000 years ago).
Genetic findings show an affinity between South American “Population-Y” and Australasian Indigenous DNA, a component absent in North America. This, coupled with the closed inland ice-free corridor at that time, negates the traditional North American-related Siberian lineage model.
It is highly probable that the pioneers were the Hokkaido Sojin, who followed a maritime-skilled coastal route via the Hokkaido-Kuril Islands and Glacial Beringia, representing an earlier dispersal. This was subsequently followed by the later broad dispersal of the inland-adapted Tianyuan/ANA lineage.
The key to the dispersal history of modern humans—specifically the First Americans—is not the North American Native teeth, but the Australasian/Onge DNA of the South American “Population Y.”
➀The White Sands footprints (dated to 22 kya by three methods) support that the initial southward dispersal (Zero Wave/ZWSP) was composed of coastal maritime people.
➁The Jomon ancestor Sojin DNA related to the Onge and Maniq, represents an early migration wave preserved in insular refugia (“cage-like islands”). Therefore, this Sojin lineage is a candidate for the coastal route dispersal, supported by their maritime livelihood, such as the 38,000-year-old obsidian voyages off the coast of Izu. -RSoJS ＃Sojin
