Two distinct populations of humans lived in Britain following recolonisation at the end of the Ice Age, according to sequencing of the oldest human DNA in the UK.
Research conducted by the University College London Institute of Archaeology, the Natural History Museum and the Francis Crick Institute explored DNA evidence from an individual from Gough's Cave, Somerset, and an individual from Kendrick's Cave, North Wales, who both lived more than 13,500 years ago.
The two populations lived only around 1000 years apart, and yet were found to be genetically and culturally distinct from each other.
Dr Selina Brace, principal researcher at the Natural History Museum, said 'We really wanted to find out more about who these early populations in Britain might have been... We knew from our previous work, including the study of Cheddar Man, that western hunter-gatherers were in Britain by around 10,500 years ago, but we didn't know when they arrived in Britain, and whether this was the only population that was present.'
The researchers published their results in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
