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An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia

Rasmussen, M; Guo, XS; Wang, Y; Lohmueller, KE; Rasmussen, S; Albrechtsen, A; Skotte, L; ... Willerslev, E; + view all (2011) An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia. SCIENCE , 333 (6052) 94 - 98. 10.1126/science.1211177. Green open access

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Abstract

We present an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. We detect no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5%. We show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. 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.

Type: Article
Title: An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1126/science.1211177
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1211177
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1328889
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