Indigenous American populations descend from an Ancient Paleo-Siberian population, itself derived from an Ancient East Asian lineage which diverged from other East Asian peoples prior to the Last Glacial Maximum, between 36,000 and 25,000 years ago, and subsequently migrated into Siberia, where they merged with Ancient North Eurasians, a Paleolithic Siberian population with deep affinities to both European and Eastern Asian populations.