| New Model of Early Human Settlements |
| Wednesday, 04 October 2006 | |
|
Geneticists and zoologists at the University of Cambridge have produced the most accurate model yet of how modern humans came to populate the planet. There is a consensus amongst archaeologists that the modern human population originated from a single population somewhere in East Africa between 45,000 and 75,000 years ago. However, other questions such as the migration speed and the size of the original settlement are hotly disputed. The model, developed by a team led by Hua Liu and published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, fits well with current archaeological data. It suggests that the process of human colonization may not be as complex as first thought. In the team’s model, a small group of individuals leave a settlement and establish their own a short distance away. Once the new colony has grown to a certain size, the process repeats itself and a new settlement sprouts off forming a chain of settlements. Using the model, the authors estimate that the original settlement in East Africa was composed of about 3000 individuals, with the first migrants leaving it about 56,000 years ago. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
News Archives
| News Archives |
