By James Pero For Dailymail.com
Published: 21:55 BST, 7 May 2019 | Updated: 22:00 BST, 7 May 2019
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According to one genetics firm, a recent client has taken the title for the oldest traceable DNA in the Americas.
A report from the Great Falls Tribune reveals Alvin 'Willy' Crawford's DNA was traced back 55 generations with a shocking 99 percent accuracy, making his lineage the longest ever traced by the ancestry testing company, CRI Genetics.
According to the report, the genetic testing traced Crawford's DNA back a whopping 17,000 years.
The length and accuracy of Crawford's lineage is so rare that the company told Crawford's family that it was 'like finding Big Foot.'
The DNA test traced Crawford's family history to ancestors that migrated across the Bering Land Bridge. Many of Americas first humans crossed a narrow land bridge that stretched across the Bering Sea and into Alaska (illustrated above)
Though Crawford's DNA test showed he was mostly of Native American ancestry, there was a surprising mix of other background in the report, including:
. 9.8 percent European
. 5.3 percent East Asian
. 2 percent South Asian
. 0.2 percent African
via Great Falls Tribune
According to the report, Crawford died of a heart attack shortly before the results of CRI's genetic testing had concluded, but was told that his ancestors had migrated across the Bering Land Bridge during an Ice Age.
According to Crawford's DNA, however, he belonged to the mtDNA Haplogroup B2 -- a genetic sub group -- which is very common in southwestern America.
Likely, Crawford's ancestors traveled from Asia to South America and traveled north according to CRI.
Crawford's DNA was 83 percent native American according to the report, with 73 percent of that coming from one tribe alone, the Blackfeet Nation.
As the ability to sequence and understand genomes has steadily advanced, so to has our understanding of the way species, including humans, have evolved.
