Allan Shumaker Wrote:
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> Well there are other possibilities. Some time ago
> I found an article from a Brasillian newspaper
> that reported on a group (Botacudo) in Brazil that
> displayed a similar morphology....

Just in:

Recovering mitochondrial DNA lineages of extinct Amerindian nations in extant homopatric Brazilian populations. V. F. G. Oliveira1, F. C. Parra1, H. Gonçalves-Dornelas1, C. Rodrigues-Carvalho2, H. P. Silva2, S. D. J. Pena1 1) Biochemistry, UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; 2) Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Brazilian Amerindians suffered a drastic population decrease in the past 500 years. Most autochthonous groups which existed in the early 16th century, especially those in the eastern seashore have vanished. Their mitochondrial haplotypes, however, still persist among Brazilians. Our studies show that in Brazil circa 50 million people carry mitochondrial lineages of Amerindian origin. Such reservoir is a rich potential information source about extinct Amerindian nations. Our objective was to test if through the study of the present-day rural populations that inhabit the region anciently occupied by Botocudo Indians, we could identify and rescue the mitochondrial lineages from this largely extinct Amerindian group. We have called this methodology “Homopatric Targeting”. We studied 174 individuals living in a small village in the northeast part of the state of Minas Gerais, a territory previously occupied by Botocudos. Pedigree analysis revealed 74 persons without matrilineal relationship, from which DNA samples were obtained. One hundred individuals from surrounding cities were used as control group. The screening of A, B, C and D mtDNA lineages was done by RFLP. We identified 20 Amerindian lineages, which had their HVRI and HVRII sequenced. We finally obtained 13 Amerindian haplotypes, of which 7 appeared to be novel, since they were not present in available databanks. Among the 13 haplotypes we observed a significant excess of haplogroup C (70%) and absence of haplogroup A, the most common in the control group. The novelty of the haplotypes and the excess of the C haplogroup suggested that we indeed might have identified Botocudo lineages, although genetic drift might also explain some of these differences. In order to validate our strategy, we studied teeth extracted from 12 ancient skulls of Botocudo Indians (approximately 200 years ago) from the anthropological collection of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. We recovered mtDNA sequences from all the teeth, identifying only 4 different haplotypes (a very low haplotypic diversity of 0.78), two of which were present among the lineages observed in the extant individuals. This validates “Homopatric Targeting” as a useful new strategy to study the peopling and colonization of the New World, especially when direct analysis of the genetic material is not possible.

[tinyurl.com]

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One group of researchers thinks Botocudo mtDNA sequences might have belonged to haplogroup C... The details are sketchy. No article yet.

I wouldn't have guessed that particular haplogroup but it could link the Botocudos with the Fuegians.

Gisele