Stanford scientists have created the most extensive genetic map of the human species to date, providing support for two long-held hypotheses about human migration patterns. The massive project surveyed the genes of 938 people from 51 locations, looking at 650,000 places in the genome in each person.

The research supports the idea that America’s earliest colonizers crossed a now-vanished land bridge across the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska by showing that people indigenous to Siberia demonstrate strong genetic similarity to native peoples of South America.

The research also supports the “Out of Africa” model of human migration, the idea that humans as a species originated in sub-Saharan Africa and radiated outwards. The Stanford research bolsters this idea by demonstrating that populations farthest from Africa are the least diverse genetically. This is what would be expected if a smaller and less-diverse group of individuals left Africa to colonize other places.

The research was published in the Feb. 22 edition of the journal “Science.”