Recently scientists made a discovery that reveals new information about the ancestry of modern Europeans.  Previously, scientists had believed the genetic make-up of modern Europeans was formed from three different tribes.  However new information reveals that a fourth group contributed to the current European gene pool.

Geneticists had previously been aware of three different groups that influenced the genetic make up of Europe today: Middle Eastern farmers, indigenous hunters, and herders knows as the Yamnaya.  The hunters moved to Europe before the invention of agriculture and primarily lived in Southern Europe during the Ice Age, and then moved to the north after the Ice Age ended.  The farmers arrived some time after hunting group had.  While the farmers who moved to Europe from the Middle East have typically been portrayed as dark skinned, while in actuality they had lighter skin than their European counterparts.  The farmers contributed to the European genome  by providing genetic material that made Europeans taller.

Not much is known about the Yamnaya, a group of herders who originated in Russia and Ukraine.  However the discovery of a new group of European ancestors sheds more light upon their origins.  Scientists had previously been unaware of the ancestry of the Yamnaya, however the discovery of the Caucasus hunter gathers helps to fill in those gaps.  Towards the end of the last Ice Age the Caucasus hunter gathers joined the Yamnaya, contributing their distinctive genetic makeup (the Caucasus hunter gathers were isolated due to the ice age, which led to their unique DNA) to the Yamnaya’s genome.  Eventually the Yamnaya would move into Europe where they would bring their metal working skills and the family of Indo-European languages that would eventually lead to the languages spoken in Europe today.  As much as half of the genetic material of Central and Northern Europeans can be traced back to the Yamnaya.  Because of the location of the Caucasus region, the people living in that area where well suited to influence populations in both Europe and Asia as many people moved through the region to migrate to other places.  Scientists such as Ron Pinhasi from University College Dublin claims that the discovery of this fourth population will continue to influence the fields of paleogeneomics and human evolution in both Europe and Asia.  Hopefully

http://time.com/4114604/human-ancestry-europe-fourth-strand/

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29213892

http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/06/nomadic-herders-left-strong-genetic-mark-europeans-and-asians

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/11/16/Researchers-reveal-Europeans-fourth-ancestral-tribe/9831447685649/