The linguistic origins of the Americas remain largely unknown. Despite numerous conjectures about deep genealogical relationships between languages, few are supported by the scientific community. In an effort to investigate a possible common ancestry between the Amazonian language families Pano and Takana, a team of linguists established an integrated workflow that combines computational and conventional methods used in historical linguistics. By evaluating hypothetical forms of vocabulary inherited from one language family to another, the researchers are uncovering substantial evidence suggesting a common ancestry between the Panoan and Takana language families.