A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia
University of Bern · University of Copenhagen · +41 more institutions
Abstract
The population history of Aboriginal Australians remains largely uncharacterized. Here we generate high-coverage genomes for 83 Aboriginal Australians (speakers of Pama-Nyungan languages) and 25 Papuans from the New Guinea Highlands. We find that Papuan and Aboriginal Australian ancestors diversified 25-40 thousand years ago (kya), suggesting pre-Holocene population structure in the ancient continent of Sahul (Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania). However, all of the studied Aboriginal Australians descend from a single founding population that differentiated ~10-32 kya. We infer a population expansion in northeast Australia during the Holocene epoch (past 10,000 years) associated with limited gene flow from…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 50.07
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 57
Authors
75- AMAnna‐Sapfo MalaspinasCorresponding
University of Bern, University of Copenhagen, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Natural History Museum Aarhus
- MWMichael Westaway
Griffith University
- CMCraig Muller
University of Copenhagen, Natural History Museum Aarhus
- VCVítor C. Sousa
University of Bern, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
- ÓLÓscar Lao
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Centre for Genomic Regulation
Topics & keywords
- Biological dispersal
- Population
- Geography
- New guinea
- Holocene
- Genealogy
- Gene flow
- Archaeology
- Quality Education