A glacial relict is a cold-adapted organism that is a remnant of a larger distribution that existed in the ice ages.
As revealed by DNA testing, a relict population is an ancient people in an area, who have been largely supplanted by a later group of migrants and their descendants.
For example, the first human groups to inhabit the Caribbean islands were hunter-gatherer tribes from South and Central America.
Genetic testing of natives of Cuba show that, in late pre-Columbian times, the island was home to agriculturalists of Taino ethnicity.
In addition, a relict population of the original hunter-gatherers remained in western Cuba as the Ciboney people.