While Italians have more ancient DNA than just WHG, it is the only component of their DNA that has this age association. There is one branch of ancient DNA that may give some of us an advantage going all the way back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. The researchers compared the 333 centenarians to 690 healthy controls from the Italian Peninsula and found that some of these ancient genes potentially mean more birthday candles. During the Last Glacial Maximum—a period spanning from about 35,000 to 20,000 years ago—most Western European hunter-gatherers were replaced by Neolithic peoples as the climate warmed. The study only focused on the population of Italy, and there are probably more genetic components to longevity than just one group of ancient hunter-gatherers who once roamed Europe.