Graff, A., Blasi, D.E., Ringen, E.J., Bajić, V., Bavelier, D., Shimizu, K.K., Pakendorf, B., Barbieri, C., Bickel, B., 2025. Patterns of genetic admixture reveal similar rates of borrowing across diverse scenarios of language contact. Science Advances 11, eadv7521. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv7521

Aguirre-Fernández G, Barbieri C, Jett SC, Carrillo-Briceño JD, Cámara-Leret R, Sánchez-Villagra MR. 2025. A global database on blowguns with links to geography and language. Evolutionary Human Sciences;7:e26. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2025.10005 

Huber LL, Arango-Isaza E, Sandoval JR, Urban M, Francalacci P, Calò C, Macholdt E, Stoneking M, Roewer L, Seidel M, Acosta O, Fujita R, Shimizu KK, Barbieri C. 2025. “Human Population History on the North Coast of Peru from Y Chromosomes and Mitogenomes.” Scientific Reports 15 (1): 27362. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-08241-6.

Menéndez, L.P., Rios, C., Acosta Morano, C., Novellino, P., Schmelzle, T., Aguirre-Fernández, G., Breidenstein, A., Barquera, R., Schuenemann, V.J., Stafford, T.W., Sánchez-Villagra, M.R., Barbieri, C., 2025. A human skeleton from Última Esperanza, South-West Patagonia, Chile: Osteobiography, morphometric, and genetic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 65, 105237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105237

Graff, A., Chousou-Polydouri, N., Inman, D., Skirgård, H., Lischka, M., Zakharko, T., Barbieri, C., & Bickel, B. 2025. Curating global datasets of structural linguistic features for independence. Scientific Data, 12(1), 106. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-04319-4

Resutik, P., Schneider, J., Aeschbacher, S., Vigeland, M. D., Gysi, M., Moser, C., Barbieri, C., Widmer, P., Currat, M., Kratzer, A., Krützen, M., Haas, C., & Arora, N. 2025. Uncovering genetic signatures of the Walser migration in the Alps: Patterns of diversity and differentiation. Forensic Science International: Genetics, 76, 103206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2024.103206

Morris, A. G., Salie, T., Mittnik, A., Rebello, G., Barbieri, C., Parkington, J., Krause, J., & Ramesar, R. 2025. Reconstructing ancient Southern African mitochondrial genomes at Faraoskop. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 17(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02130-1

Passmore S, Wood ALC, Barbieri C, Shilton D, Daikoku H, Atkinson QD & Savage PE. 2024. Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories. Nat Commun 15, 3964. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48113-7

Arango-Isaza E, Aninao MJ, Campbell R, Martínez FI, Shimizu KK, Barbieri C. 2023. Bridging the Gap: Returning Genetic Results to Indigenous Communities in Latin America. Frontiers in Genetics 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2023.1304974

Menéndez LP, Barbieri C, López Cruz IG, Schmelzle T, Breidenstein A, Barquera R, Borzi G,  Schuenemann VJ, Sánchez-Villagra M. 2023. On Roth’s “human fossil” from Baradero, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina: morphological and genetic analysis. Swiss J Palaeontol 142, 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-023-00293-3

Arango-Isaza E, Capodiferro MR, Aninao MJ, Babiker H, Aeschbacher S, Achilli A, Posth C, Campbell R, Martínez FI, Heggarty P, Sadowsky S, Shimizu KK, Barbieri C. 2023. The genetic history of the southern Andes from present-day Mapuche ancestry. Current Biology 33, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.05.013  

Capodiferro MR, Chero Osorio AM, Rambaldi Migliore N, Tineo Tineo DH, Raveane A, Xavier C, Bodner M, Simão F, Ongaro L, Montinaro F, Lindo J, Huerta-Sanchez E, Politis G, Barbieri C, Parson W, Gusmão L, Achilli A. 2023. The multifaceted genomic history of Ashaninka from Amazonian Peru. Current Biology. 33(8):1573-1581.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.046   

Barbieri, C., Blasi, D. E., Arango-Isaza, E., Sotiropoulos, A. G., Hammarström, H., Wichmann, S., Greenhill, S. J., Gray, R. D., Forkel, R., Bickel, B., & Shimizu, K. K. 2022. A global analysis of matches and mismatches between human genetic and linguistic histories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(47), e2122084119 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2122084119

Sotiropoulos, A.G., Arango-Isaza, E., Ban, T., Barbieri, C., Bourras, S., Cowger, C., Czembor, P.C., Ben-David, R., Dinoor, A., Ellwood, S.R., Graf, J., Hatta, K., Helguera, M., Sánchez-Martín, J., McDonald, B.A., Morgounov, A.I., Müller, M.C., Shamanin, V., Shimizu, K.K., Yoshihira, T., Zbinden, H., Keller, B., Wicker, T., 2022. Global genomic analyses of wheat powdery mildew reveal association of pathogen spread with historical human migration and trade. Nat. Commun. 13, 4315. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31975-0

Lankheet I, Vicente M, Barbieri C, Schlebusch C. 2021. The performance of common SNP arrays in assigning African mitochondrial haplogroups. BMC Genomic Data 221 22, 1–8 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-021-01000-2

Aguirre-Fernández G*, Barbieri C*, Graff A, Pérez de Arce J, Moreno H, Sánchez-Villagra MR. (*first authors contributed equally). 2021. “Cultural macroevolution of musical instruments in South America”. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8, 208. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00881-z

Schlebusch CM, Loog L, Groucutt HS, King T, Rutherford A, Barbieri C, Barbujani G, Chikhi L, Stringer C, Jakobsson M, Eriksson A, Manica A, Tishkoff SA, Scerri EM, Scally A, Brierley C, & Thomas MG. 2021. Human origins in Southern African palaeo-wetlands? Strong claims from weak evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science, 130, 105374. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JAS.2021.105374

Urban M & Barbieri C. 2020. North and South in the ancient Central Andes: contextualizing the archaeological record with evidence from linguistics and molecular anthropology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 60, 101233 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101233

Nakatsuka N, Lazaridis I, Barbieri C, Skoglund P, Rohland N, Mallick S, Harkins-Kinkaid K, Ferry M, Harney E, Michel M, et al. 2020. A Paleogenomic Reconstruction of the Deep Population History of the Andes. Cell 181:1131-1145.e21.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.015

Barquera R, Lamnidis TC, Lankapalli AK, Kocher A, Hernández-Zaragoza DI, Nelson EA, Zamora-Herrera AC, Ramallo P, Bernal-Felipe N, Immel A, Bos K, Acuña-Alonzo V, Barbieri C, Roberts P, Herbig A, Kühnert D, Márquez-Morfín L, Krause J. 2020. Origin and Health Status of First-Generation Africans from Early Colonial Mexico. Curr. Biol. 30(11), 2078-2091.e11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.002

Barbieri C, Barquera R, Arias L, Sandoval JR, Acosta O, Zurita C, Aguilar-Campos A, Tito-Álvarez AM, Serrano-Osuna R, Gray R, Mafessoni F, Heggarty P, Shimizu KK, Fujita R, Stoneking M, Pugach I, Fehren-Schmitz L. 2019. The current genomic landscape of western South America: Andes, Amazonia and Pacific Coast. Mol Biol Evol. 36(12), 2698–2713. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz174

Bajić V, Barbieri C, Hübner A, Güldemann T, Naumann C, Gerlach L, Berthold F, Nakagawa H, Mpoloka SW, Roewer L, Purps J, Stoneking M, Pakendorf B. 2018. Genetic structure and sex-biased gene flow in the history of southern African populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 167(3), 656-671. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23694

Tucci S, Vohr SH, McCoy RC, Vernot B, Robinson MR, Barbieri C, Nelson BJ, Fu W, Purnomo GA, Sudoyo H, Eichler EE, Barbujani G, Visscher PM, Akey JM, Green RE. 2018. Evolutionary history and adaptation of a human pygmy population of Flores Island, Indonesia. Science 361:511–516. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar8486  

Arias L, Barbieri C, Barreto G, Stoneking M, Pakendorf B. High-resolution mitochondrial DNA analysis sheds light on human diversity, cultural interactions, and population mobility in Northwestern Amazonia. 2018. American Journal of Physical Anthropology; 165(2): 238-255. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23345

Barbieri C, Sandoval JR, Valqui J, Shimelman A, Ziemendorff S, Schröder R, Geppert M, Roewer L, Gray R, Stoneking M, Fujita R and Heggarty P. 2017. Enclaves of genetic diversity resisted Inca impacts on population history. Scientific Reports, 7: 17411. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17728-w

Bortolini E, Pagani L, Crema ER, Sarno S, Barbieri C, Boattini A, Sazzini M, Da Silva SG, Martini G, Metspalu M, Pettener D. 2017. Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, p.201614395. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1614395114

Sarno S, Boattini A, Pagani L, Sazzini M, De Fanti S, Quagliariello A, Gnecchi-Ruscone GA, Guichard E, Ciani G, Bortolini E, Barbieri C, Cilli E, Petrilli R, Mikerezi I, Sineo L, Vilar M, Wells S, Luiselli D, Pettener D. 2017. Ancient and recent admixture layers in Sicily and Southern Italy trace multiple migration routes along the Mediterranean. Scientific Reports, 7(1), p.1984. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01802-4

Boattini A, Sarno S, Bini C, Pesci V, Barbieri C, De Fanti S, Quagliariello A, Pagani L, Ayub Q, Ferri G, Pettener D, Luiselli D, Pelotti S. 2016. Mutation rates and discriminating power for 13 Rapidly-Mutating Y-STRs between related and unrelated individuals. Plos One. 11 (11) pp: e0165678 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165678

Malaspinas AS, Westaway MC, Muller C, Sousa VC, Lao O, Alves I, Bergström A, Athanasiadis G, Cheng JY, Crawford JE, Heupink TH, Macholdt E, Peischl S, Rasmussen S, Schiffels S, Subramanian S, Wright JL, Albrechtsen A, Barbieri C, et al. 2016. A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia. Nature. 538: 207–214. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18299

Barbieri C, Hübner A, Macholdt E, Ni S, Lippold S, Schröder R, Mpoloka SWSW, Purps J, Roewer L, Stoneking M, Pakendorf B. 2016. Refining the Y chromosome phylogeny with southern African sequences. Human Genetics, 135 (5), 541–553 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-016-1651-0

De Fanti S*, Barbieri C*, Sarno S, Sevini F, Vianello D, Tamm E, Metspalu E, Van Oven M, Hübner A, Sazzini M, Franceschi C, Pettener D, Luiselli D. (*first authors contributed equally). 2015. Fine dissection of human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup HV lineages reveals Paleolithic signatures from European glacial refugia. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0144391. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144391

Barbieri C, Heggarty P, Yang Yao D, Ferri G, De Fanti S, Sarno S, Ciani G, Boattini A, Luiselli D, Pettener D. 2014. Between Andes and Amazon: The genetic profile of the Arawak-speaking Yanesha. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 155: 600–609. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22616

Barbieri C, Vicente M, Oliveira S, Bostoen K, Rocha J, Stoneking M, Pakendorf B. 2014. Migration and interaction in a contact zone: mtDNA variation among Bantu-speakers in southern Africa. PLoS One: 9(6):e99117. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099117

Macholdt E, Lede V, Barbieri C, Mpoloka SW, Chen H, Slatkin M, Pakendorf B, Stoneking M. 2014. Tracing Pastoralist Migrations to Southern Africa with Lactase Persistence Alleles. Current Biology 24: 875-879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.027

Giuliani C, Barbieri C, Li M, Bucci L, Monti D, Passarino G, Luiselli D, Franceschi C, Stoneking M, Garagnani P. 2014. Transmission from centenarians to their offspring of mtDNA heteroplasmy revealed by ultra-deep sequencing. AGING 6:454–467. https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100661

Barbieri C, Güldemann T, Naumann C, Gerlach L, Berthold F, Nakagawa H, Mpoloka SW, Stoneking M, Pakendorf B. 2014. Unraveling the complex maternal history of Southern African Khoisan populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 153:435–448. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22441

Barbieri C, Vicente M, Rocha J, Mpoloka SW, Stoneking M, Pakendorf B. 2013.Ancient substructure in early mtDNA lineages of southern Africa. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 92.2: 285-292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.12.010

Pickrell JK, Patterson N, Barbieri C, Berthold F, Gerlach L, Güldemann T, Kure B, Mpoloka SW, Nakagawa H, Naumann C, Lipson M, Loh P-R, Lachance J, Mountain J, Bustamante CD, Berger B, Tishkoff SA, Henn BM, Stoneking M, Reich D, Pakendorf B. 2012. The genetic prehistory of southern Africa. Nat Commun 3:1143 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2140

Barbieri C, Butthof A, Bostoen K, Pakendorf B. 2013. Genetic perspectives on the origin of clicks in Bantu languages from southwestern Zambia. European Journal of Human Genetics: 21:430–436. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2012.192

Barbieri C, Whitten M, Beyer K, Schreiber H, Li M, Pakendorf B. 2012. Contrasting maternal and paternal histories in the linguistic context of Burkina Faso. Molecular Biology and Evolution 29:1213–1236 https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msr291

de Filippo C*, Barbieri C*, Whitten M, Mpoloka SW, Gunnarsdóttir ED, Bostoen K, Nyambe T, Beyer K, Schreiber H, de Knijff P, Luiselli D, Stoneking M, Pakendorf B. (*first authors contributed equally). 2011. Y-chromosomal variation in Sub-Saharan Africa: insights into the history of Niger-Congo groups. Molecular Biology and Evolution 28(3): 1255-1269  https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msq312

Barbieri C, Heggarty P, Castrì L, Luiselli D, Pettener D. 2011. Mitochondrial DNA variability in the Titicaca basin: Matches and mismatches with linguistics and ethnohistory. American Journal of Human Biology, 23: 89–99. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.21107

Invited contributions

Barbieri C. and Widmer P. 2025. Advances in population genetics and language history: how large datasets and ancient DNA changed the picture. In Robbeets M and Hudson M (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology and Language. Oxford University Press. 193–209 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192868350.013.36 LINK

Urban M, Barbieri C, Rademaker K. 2025. Archaeolinguistics of the languages of the Andes. In: Robbeets M, Hudson M (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology and Language. Oxford University Press, 648–63. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192868350.013.33

Barbieri C. 2020. Genetic Exchanges in Transitional Environments of South America. In Heggarty, P and Pierce, A (eds) Rethinking the Andes-Amazonia ´Divide´: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration. UCL University Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787357358. LINK

Edited volumes

Ravignani, C. Barbieri, M. Flaherty, Y. Jadoul, E. Lattenkamp, H. Little, M. Martins, K. Mudd, & T. Verhoef (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference (Evolang13). 2020. Nijmegen: The Evolution of Language Conferences. https://brussels.evolang.org/proceedings/evolang13_proceedings.pdf

Guest editor for the special issue “The Genomic Impact of Human Migrations” of the journal Genes. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/genes/special_issues/Genomic_Human_Migrations