CU Boulder researcher uses turkey DNA to shed light on ancestral Pueblo people – Boulder Daily Camera

DNA extracted from turkey bones buried in the Mesa Verde region before migration from that area and DNA collected from the northern Rio Grande region before and after Mesa Verde was abandoned is cited in a new study which suggests a strong connection between contemporary Tewa Pueblo people in New Mexico and the Pueblo people who lived in Mesa Verde before its collapse. (Camera file photo )

DNA from domesticated turkeys has been used to track the mass exodus of ancestral Pueblo people from Mesa Verde in the late 13th century to the northern Rio Grande north of Santa Fe, N.M., according to a University of Colorado news release.

CU assistant professor Scott Ortman, one of four lead authors on a study documenting the research in a recent issue of the science journal PLOS ONE, said good evidence has been found supporting a substantial influx of turkeys into the northern Rio Grande region that had the same genetic composition as turkeys from the Mesa Verde region.

"This is a new line of evidence suggesting a strong connection between contemporary Tewa Pueblo people in New Mexico and the Pueblo people who lived in Mesa Verde country before its collapse," Ortman said.

The study included co-authors from Washington State University, the University of California, Davis and the University of Oklahoma.

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CU Boulder researcher uses turkey DNA to shed light on ancestral Pueblo people - Boulder Daily Camera