By Julia Symmes Cobb

BOGOTA (Reuters) -Scientists in Colombia have discovered a previously unknown lineage of human beings after fully sequencing the DNA of ancient remains excavated at archeological sites near the country’s capital Bogota.

The group, called the Checua after the area in Nemocon municipality where their remains were excavated in 1992, are about 6,000 years old and have never had their genome fully sequenced before.

“When we started to compare with other individuals from other parts of the Americas, we found that the individuals from the Pre-ceramic Period found here in the Cundiboyacense plateau have a lineage that hasn’t been reported,” said Dr. Andrea Casas, a researcher at the National University’s Genetics Institute. “It’s a new lineage.”

The Checua discovery includ

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