The Ancient African Continent DNA Revelation! The Amazing Truth

We all have heard of Africa as the “cradle of humankind” or the “fountain of humankind”, due to the earliest evidence of human ancestors found here. A new research show on how the African ancestor mixture and a couple of truths on how they lived and connected came to light.

A group of 44 researchers from different fields worked together and shared their discoveries in a paper called “Ancient DNA reveals deep population structure in sub-Saharan African Foragers.” The paper was published in the journal Nature and presents findings from studying DNA from six individuals who lived in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago.

David Reich, a professor at Harvard University and part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who led the team that collected the data for the paper, said, “This discovery makes the ancient DNA data from sub-Saharan Africa more than two times older than what was previously known. The study is especially thrilling because it represents a genuine and equal partnership between archaeologists and geneticists.”

A Data Collection African Results

The researchers also looked again at existing data from 28 individuals buried in different places in Africa. They were able to create better and updated data for 15 of those individuals. This resulted in a unique collection of DNA from ancient African foragers – people who lived by hunting, gathering, or fishing.

It’s hard to understand their genetic heritage from modern people due to numerous population movements and intermingling that happened over the past few thousand years.

With the help of this information, the researchers were able to describe significant changes in the populations of Africa that happened between 80,000 and 20,000 years ago. Even around 50,000 years ago, people from various parts of the continent moved to different places, formed connections, and traded goods and knowledge over long distances.

They even found partners for reproduction through these social networks. This way of living and interacting helped them not only survive but also flourish and do well in their communities, as stated by the researchers.

Challengings in Results

Elizabeth Sawchuk, a researcher involved in the study, explained that a significant cultural change occurred around 50,000 years ago in Africa. During this period, symbolic art like beads and pigments became common across the continent. Previous theories suggested that this change might be linked to shifts in social connections and population size, but testing these ideas has been challenging.

However, with the use of ancient DNA from the remains of people who lived during that time, the researchers were able to directly explore these proposed demographic shifts. This DNA provided valuable insights into the lives of ancient people that could not be obtained from artifacts like stone tools or beads alone.

Mary Prendergast, another researcher on the team, mentioned that some arguments suggest the development and expansion of long-distance trade networks during this period helped humans survive the last Ice Age.

Most Accurate Results

The researchers also found evidence that around 20,000 years ago, people in Africa started moving around less than before. One possible reason for this is that by that time, social networks were well-established, and information and technology could flow between different groups without people needing to physically move.

This study gives us a better understanding of how people interacted and mixed in this part of Africa. Before, the oldest DNA samples from Africa came from the region of present-day Morocco, but the individuals in this study lived much farther away, like how Bangladesh is distant from Norway.

The genetic findings support the idea that over time, people in eastern Africa tended to stay more local in their behavior. In the past, they may have found reproductive partners from different and distant regions, but later on, they preferred partners who lived nearby and shared similar cultures.

A New Concept

Kaliba emphasized the significance of investing in the preservation and care of human remains and archaeological artifacts in African museums, as this research demonstrates.

Additionally, Prendergast pointed out that this work also helps to address the unequal distribution of research focus globally. While there are approximately 30 times more published ancient DNA sequences from Europe compared to Africa, Africa actually holds the highest human genetic diversity on Earth, indicating that there is a wealth of knowledge yet to be uncovered in the continent’s genetic heritage.

Read the original article ScienceDaily.

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