Abstract
Twenty thousand years or so ago, man appeared in the New World. We do not know how many prehistoric migrants reached the Americas through Beringia on this first occasion, - presumably only a few - nor how many subsequent migrations took place, nor the physical appearance of these individuals (see Laughlin, 1977). It is assumed they were mongoloid and possibly similar to the peoples presently indigenous to northeastern Siberia. Surprisingly quickly after their arrival, descendants of these early migrants had peopled the plains and woodlands of Canada and the United States, filtered through Mexico and the Isthmus of Panama, and had penetrated the southern continent. We do not know to which of the numerous regions of the Americas through which these early nomads passed in this prehistoric hegira they were best suited, but few regions would have been more hostile than the Andean altiplano which they reached twelve thousand years ago (MacNeish et al., 1970; but see also MacNeish, 1971). Ambient temperature can and frequently does vary more than 50 °C in the span of 24 hours; little shelter exists from the chilling, parching winds, and the partial oxygen pressure is but 60% of that which obtains at sea level. Normal thermoregulation is seriously challenged; so is the transport and tissue utilization of oxygen. However, man has obviously thrived in the Andes; more than ten million individuals now live there at altitudes of 3000 meters or more (Baker, 1977).
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Schull, W.J., Ferrell, R.E., Rothhammer, F. (1978). Genes, Enzymes and Hypoxia. In: Brussard, P.F. (eds) Ecological Genetics: The Interface. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6330-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6330-2_4
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