Genes Don’t Lie: DNA Reveals a New Twist in Human Origin Story — Contemporary DNA evidence |
suggest that, based on contemporary genomic evidence from across the continent, there were humans living in different regions of Africa, migrating from one region to another and mixing with one another over a period of hundreds of thousands of years. This view runs counter to some of the dominant theories about human origins in Africa.One theory holds that, about 150,000 years ago, there was a single central ancestral population in Africa from which other populations diverged.
In the first systematic test of these competing anthropological models against genetic data, the team worked backward from contemporary genomic material of 290 individuals from four geographically and genetically diverse African groups to trace the similarities and differences between the populations over the past million years and gain insight into the genetic interconnections and human evolution across the continent.
The groups were the Nama ; the Mende ; the Gumuz ; and the Amhara and Oromo . The researchers also included some Eurasian genetic material to include the traces of colonial incursions and mixing in Africa. “We used a new algorithm to rapidly test hundreds of possible scenarios. Those with gene flow back and forth between populations in various parts of the continent over the course of hundreds of thousands of years provided a much better explanation of the genetic variation we see today,” adds Simon Gravel, Associate Professor in the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University, and co-senior author on the paper.
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