Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history.
Nature
; 577(7792): 665-670, 2020 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31969706
ABSTRACT
Our knowledge of ancient human population structure in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly prior to the advent of food production, remains limited. Here we report genome-wide DNA data from four children-two of whom were buried approximately 8,000 years ago and two 3,000 years ago-from Shum Laka (Cameroon), one of the earliest known archaeological sites within the probable homeland of the Bantu language group1-11. One individual carried the deeply divergent Y chromosome haplogroup A00, which today is found almost exclusively in the same region12,13. However, the genome-wide ancestry profiles of all four individuals are most similar to those of present-day hunter-gatherers from western Central Africa, which implies that populations in western Cameroon today-as well as speakers of Bantu languages from across the continent-are not descended substantially from the population represented by these four people. We infer an Africa-wide phylogeny that features widespread admixture and three prominent radiations, including one that gave rise to at least four major lineages deep in the history of modern humans.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Phylogeny
/
Black People
/
Feeding Behavior
/
Human Migration
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
En
Journal:
Nature
Year:
2020
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States