Ancient genomes show how humans escaped Europe’s last ice age

European hunter-gatherers holed up in what is now Spain to escape the last ice age, which covered large parts of the continent with glaciers for several millennia. Researchers analysed DNA from 356 individuals who lived in Europe and western Asia between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. The humans who had sought out the warmer climate on the Iberian Peninsula repopulated Western Europe after the deep freeze ended. This explains how a genetic signature that first showed up in 35,000-year-old remains popped up again in populations tens of thousands of years later — a fact that had remained a mystery until now.