Prehistoric genomes from the world’s first farmers in the Zagros mountains reveal different Neolithic ancestry for Europeans and South Asians

Populations in the ancient Fertile Crescent are the ancestors of modern day South Asians but not of Europeans, new research shows. The earliest farmers from the Zagros mountains in Iran, i.e., the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent, are neither the main ancestors of Europe’s first farmers nor of modern-day Europeans. Researchers say that this came as a surprise.