Addendum to Ancient DNA data from Mengzi Ren, a Late Pleistocene individual from Southeast Asia, cannot be reliably used in population genetic analysis

Abstract

In addition to the issues pointed out in Tabin et al1, the MZR data from Zhang et. al 20222 are suggestive of high levels of contamination from a source similar to modern Han Chinese, the majority population in the country where MZR was sequenced. In fact, MZR can be modeled entirely as Han-related ancestry and noise. These results raise further concerns about the veracity of the MZR data and thus the papers historical conclusions.