Hair Shows Aborigine Ancestors Were First to Explore World

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Scientists are rewriting the history of human migration based on a 100-year-old hair sample.

Genetic analysis by Danish researchers of curly, dark- colored locks indicates that Australian Aborigines are direct descendants of the first people to migrate out of Africa, according to findings published in the journal Science. The Aborigines’ forebears probably made their way across the world 24,000 years before another wave led Europe’s and Asia’s settlement, the scientists said.

The analysis of the hair, donated by an Aborigine man to a British anthropologist a century ago, shows that Aborigines’ ancestors split from the first populations in Africa 62,000 to 75,000 years ago, moving east and eventually to Australia. Europe and Asia were first settled as many as 38,000 years ago, the researchers said.

“Our findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa,” the researchers wrote in the study. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-23/hair-shows-aborigine-ancestors-as-first-humans-to-explore-world.html

[eShirl]

1. No, sorry, I consider Neanderthals and Denisovians to have been people, too.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/hms-dk091611.php
But other than that, it's great to see how we are understanding more and more of our distant past.
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2011/article/aboriginal-australians-descended-from-early-migration-of-modern-humans-out-of-africa-study-says

[edhopper]

2. That's very tolerant of you.

But they were still genetically different.

[eShirl]

3. We interbred with them and their DNA survives today in us.

It wasn't I who was tolerant. LOL

[edhopper]

4. Has that been confirmed

I know it is one of the current theories, but I have not kept up with the science.
Is the evidence of that now cannon.

[bemildred]

5. There have been a number of articles about interbreeding recently.

Given the human tendency to have sex with anything at all in a pinch, it is not surprising.

Google "human neanderthal" and you will get some news stories on the subject.