Studies Indicate A Single Migration From Africa Accounts For Vast Majority Of World Population
- 8 years ago
Three genome-based studies published recently in Nature agree that the vast majority of non-Africans living on the planet today can be traced back to a single migratory event that occurred 50,000 to 80,000 years ago.
Humans as we know them today appeared in Africa some 200,000 years ago, but exactly when and how many times our ancestors set out and successfully populated continents afar has long been a hotly debated topic.
3 genome-based studies published recently in Nature agree that the vast majority of non-Africans living on the planet today can be traced back to a single migratory event that occurred 50,000 to 80,000 years ago.
Of course, vast majority doesn’t mean all.
One study involving the analysis of genomes from around the world determined roughly 2% of those from the people of Papua New Guinea indicated ancestral ties to a diaspora occurring some 50,000 years earlier.
Nonetheless, Joshua Akey, a genetics expert from the University of Washington, Seattle, points out, “As population geneticists, we could spend the next decade arguing about that 2%, but in practical terms it doesn’t matter.” He stresses that, combined, the research “explains more than 90% of the ancestry of living people.”
Humans as we know them today appeared in Africa some 200,000 years ago, but exactly when and how many times our ancestors set out and successfully populated continents afar has long been a hotly debated topic.
3 genome-based studies published recently in Nature agree that the vast majority of non-Africans living on the planet today can be traced back to a single migratory event that occurred 50,000 to 80,000 years ago.
Of course, vast majority doesn’t mean all.
One study involving the analysis of genomes from around the world determined roughly 2% of those from the people of Papua New Guinea indicated ancestral ties to a diaspora occurring some 50,000 years earlier.
Nonetheless, Joshua Akey, a genetics expert from the University of Washington, Seattle, points out, “As population geneticists, we could spend the next decade arguing about that 2%, but in practical terms it doesn’t matter.” He stresses that, combined, the research “explains more than 90% of the ancestry of living people.”