The first major genomic study of Aboriginal Australians ever undertaken has confirmed that all present-day non-African populations are descended from the same single wave of migrants, who left Africa around 72,000 years ago.
It is true that there has been, historically, a small number of claims that there were people in Australia before Australian Aborigines. Australian Aborigines migrated from Africa when Ausralia was connected to Asia mainland islands.
Researchers sequenced the complete genetic information of 83 Aboriginal Australians, as well as 25 Papuans from New Guinea, to produce a host of significant new findings about the origins of modern human populations.
The new research dramatically improves that picture. Working closely with community elders, representative organisations and the ethical board of Griffith University, Willerslev and colleagues obtained permission to sequence dozens of Aboriginal Australian genomes, using DNA extracted from saliva.
This was compared with existing genetic information about other populations. The researchers modelled the likely genetic impact of different human dispersals from Africa and towards Australia, looking for patterns that best matched the data they had acquired.
Dr Manjinder Sandhu, a senior author from the Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge, said: “Our results suggest that, rather than having left in a separate wave, most of the genomes of Papuans and Aboriginal Australians can be traced back to a single ‘Out of Africa’ event which led to modern worldwide populations.
The study then traces the Papuan and Australian groups’ progress. Around 50,000 years ago they reached “Sahul” – a prehistoric supercontinent that originally united New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania, until these regions were separated by rising sea levels approximately 10,000 years ago.
There are about 500 different Aboriginal peoples in Australia, each with their own language and territory and usually made up of a large number of separate clans.
Archaeologists believe(there is no proof or evidence) that the Aboriginals first came to the Australian continent around 50,000 years ago. this count was before the Voice propaganda, now its rewritten as 60,000 years. keep watching it will grow to 1 million years soon, if YES referendum wins
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