Early modern human dispersal from Africa: genomic evidence for multiple waves of migration.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Anthropological and genetic data agree in indicating the African continent as the main place of origin for anatomically modern humans. However, it is unclear whether early modern humans left Africa through a single, major process, dispersing simultaneously over Asia and Europe, or in two main waves, first through the Arab Peninsula into southern Asia and Oceania, and later through a northern route crossing the Levant.

Results

Here, we show that accurate genomic estimates of the divergence times between European and African populations are more recent than those between Australo-Melanesia and Africa and incompatible with the effects of a single dispersal. This difference cannot possibly be accounted for by the effects of either hybridization with archaic human form

SUBMITTER: Tassi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4636834 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature