Convergent Human Evolution in the Occident and Orient
Western and Eastern Eurasians followed fairly similar paths into agriculture, so they evolved somewhat in parallel too.
Here’s a recent (April 4, 2026) preprint by, among others, David Reich and Ali Akbari, who previously led that finally famous ancient genetics paper showing that the invention of agriculture brought about rapid human evolution in Western Eurasia (e.g., Europe). Now, they are looking at the other half of Eurasia, from the Stan countries out into the Pacific islands, but concentrating on China and Japan. Overall, they find somewhat similar patterns, probably because both ends of Eurasia developed agriculture and herding a long time ago.
Alison R. Barton, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Ron Pinhasi, Ali Akbari, David Reich
doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.03.716344
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review
Abstract
Ancient DNA-based studies of natural selection have focused on West Eurasia due to the availability of large sample sizes, but rich insights are expected to come from comparative studies that can reveal which patterns are shared and which region-specific. We test around seven million variants for selection in 1,862 ancient East Eurasians (867 with new data) distributed over the last ten millennia. Using a generalized linear mixed model to control for population structure, we identify 40 genome-wide significant signals of selection, which have a particularly strong impact on immune and cardiometabolic traits just as in West Eurasia. East and West Eurasia show highly correlated signals of adaptation both for individual alleles and for complex traits, showing how these geographically separate groups experienced convergent evolution in response to parallel transitions to food producing economies and the accompanying lifestyle changes. An exception is the genetic determinants of light skin color: West Eurasians depigmented in the last 10,000 years, but most skin lightening in East Asians arose prior to the Holocene. …
The most densely populated parts of Europe are a lot further north than their counterparts in East Asia, because the Gulf Stream makes the climate pleasant further north in Europe than anywhere else. For example, Shanghai is at about the same latitude as Marrakesh, while cold Beijing is as far north as Naples. Paris is well north of Ulan Bator, Mongolia. So, when ancient Middle Eastern farmers migrated northwestward into Europe, it’s not surprising they depigmented.
Discussion
The sample size we analyze is an order of magnitude less than the West Eurasian scan (1),
The Chinese government is not enthusiastic about foreigners doing DNA research outside of China on Chinese remains. So sample sizes are low.
In contrast, white Americans seem pretty copacetic about high-tech grave-robbing. For instance, this week, a new study …
Paywall here.
