Advertisement

Indigenous Australians most ancient civilisation on Earth, DNA study confirms

Bookmark this
September 22, 2016 By Hannah Devlin

Clues left in genes of modern populations in Australian and Papua New Guinea enable scientists to trace remarkable journey made by first human explorers.

Claims that Indigenous Australians are the most ancient continuous civilisation on Earth have been backed by the first extensive study of their DNA, which dates their origins to more than 50,000 years ago.

Scientists were able to trace the remarkable journey made by intrepid ancient humans by sifting through clues left in the DNA of modern populations in Australia and Papua New Guinea. The analysis shows that their ancestors were probably the first humans to cross an ocean, and reveals evidence of prehistoric liaisons with an unknown hominin cousin.

Prof Eske Willerslev, an evolutionary geneticist who led the work at the University of Copenhagen, said: “This story has been missing for a long time in science. Now we know their relatives are the guys who were the first real human explorers. Our ancestors were sitting being kind of scared of the world while they set out on this exceptional journey across Asia and across the sea.”

The findings appear in one of four major human origins papers published in Nature this week, which together give an unprecedented insight into how humans first migrated out of the African continent, splintered into distinct populations and spread across the globe.

Willerslev’s findings, based on a new population analysis of 83 Indigenous Australians and 25 Papuans, shows that these groups can trace their origins back to the very first arrivals on the continent about 50,000 years ago and that they remained almost entirely isolated until around 4,000 years ago. “They are probably the oldest group in the world that you can link to one particular place,” said Willerslev.

En route to Australia, early humans would have encountered a motley assortment of other roving hominin species, including an unknown human relative who has now been shown to have contributed around 4% to the Indigenous Australian genome. Previously, scientists have discovered that prehistoric couplings have left all non-Africans today carrying 1-6% of Neanderthal DNA.

Willerslev said the latest findings added to the view that Neanderthals and other now extinct hominins, traditionally portrayed as low-browed prehistoric thugs, were “in reality not particularly different” from our own ancestors.

Adding to this picture, a second study found that the advent of modern human behaviours around 100,000 years ago, indicated by cave art and more sophisticated tools, does not appear to have been accompanied by any notable genetic mutations.

“Your genome contains the history of every ancestor you ever had,” said Swapan Mallick, a geneticist at Havard Medical School who led the analysis of the genomes of people from 142 distinct populations.

The study also suggests that the KhoeSan (bushmen) and Mbuti (central African pygmies) populations appear to have split off from other early humans sooner than this, again suggesting that there was no intrinsic biological change that suddenly triggered human culture.

“There is no evidence for a magic mutation that made us human,” said Willerslev.

Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said the findings would be controversial in the field, adding: “It either means that the behaviours were developed earlier, they developed these behaviours independently, they acquired them through exchanges of ideas with other groups, or the estimated split times are too old.”

Willerslev’s study also resolves the apparent discrepancy between genetic findings implying that Indigenous populations have been in Australia for tens of thousands of years and the fact that the languages spoken by these populations are only around 4,000 years old. “You see a movement of people spreading across the continent and leaving signatures across the continent,” said Willerslev. “That is the time that this new language has spread. It’s a tiny genetic signature. It’s almost like two guys entering a village and saying ‘guys, now we have to speak another language and use another stone tool and they have a little bit of sex in that village and then they disappear again.”

Aubrey Lynch, an Indigenous elder from the Goldfields area, said: “This study confirms our beliefs that we have ancient connections to our lands and have been here far longer than anyone else.”


Source: theguardian 

 

 

 

 

Written by

Hannah Devlin


Advertisement

Recent Articles

The United Australia Lebanese Movement Australia Day Award Ceremony

The United Australia Lebanese Movement Australia Day Award Ceremony

The United Australia Lebanese Movement (UALM) held its 22nd consecutive Australia Day Award Ceremony on 22/01/2020 endorsed by the Australia Day Council of NSW. The UALM is the only organisation outside of Local Government able to hold such an event.

January 26, 2020

Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas, Water Cannons Fired at Stone-Throwing Protesters in Beirut

Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas, Water Cannons Fired at Stone-Throwing Protesters in Beirut

Security forces on Sunday fired rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons at stone-throwing protesters in central Beirut, a day after almost 400 people were injured in the fiercest clashes yet...

January 20, 2020 By Naharnet Newsdesk

Lebanon ranks first in Huawei's Mideast ICT competition

Lebanon ranks first in Huawei's Mideast ICT competition

Lebanon ranked the first in Huawei's Middle East ICT competition which took place over the weekend in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, a Huawei statement said Monday. A total of 13 teams of 39 students from across the Middle East competed in the final.

December 3, 2019

Hariri Announces Resignation, Urges Political Parties to Protect Lebanon

Hariri Announces Resignation, Urges Political Parties to Protect Lebanon

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday submitted his government’s resignation to President Michel Aoun, on the 13th day of an unprecedented popular revolt against the entire political class.

October 30, 2019 By Naharnet Newsdesk