Tag Archives: out of africa

Homo sapiens zog früher aus Afrika aus als gedacht

Tübinger Wissenschaftler erforschen die Wanderungswellen des frühen Menschen

Der anatomisch moderne Mensch hat sich von Afrika aus in mehreren Wanderungswellen nach Asien und Europa ausgebreitet. Die ersten Vorfahren heutiger Menschen nahmen dabei wahrscheinlich schon vor rund 130.000 Jahren eine südliche Route über die Arabische Halbinsel in Richtung Asien. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommen Professorin Katerina Harvati und ihre Mitarbeiter vom Institut für Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie der Universität Tübingen und dem Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in Zusammenarbeit mit Kollegen der Universität von Ferrara, Italien, und dem Nationalmuseum für Naturgeschichte, Frankreich. (more…)

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Harmful Protein-Coding Mutations in People arose Largely in the Past 5,000 to 10,000 Years

A study dating the age of more than 1 million single-letter variations in the human DNA code reveals that most of these mutations are of recent origin, evolutionarily speaking. These kinds of mutations change one nucleotide – an A, C, T or G – in the DNA sequence. Over 86 percent of the harmful protein-coding mutations of this type arose in humans just during the past 5,000 to 10,000 years.

Some of the remaining mutations of this nature may have no effect on people, and a few might be beneficial, according to the project researchers. While each specific mutation is rare, the findings suggest that the human population acquired an abundance of these single-nucleotide genetic variants in a relatively short time. (more…)

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The Genographic Project Confirms Humans Migrated Out of Africa through Arabia

*New analytical method approaches the unstudied 99% of the human genome*

WASHINGTON, D.C., – 02 Nov 2011: Evolutionary history shows that human populations likely originated in Africa, and the Genographic Project, the most extensive survey of human population genetic data to date, suggests where they went next. A study by the Project finds that modern humans migrated out of Africa via a southern route through Arabia, rather than a northern route by way of Egypt. These findings will be highlighted today at a conference at the National Geographic Society.

National Geographic and IBM’s Genographic Project scientific consortium have developed a new analytical method that traces the relationship between genetic sequences from patterns of recombination – the process by which molecules of DNA are broken up and recombine to form new pairs. Ninety-nine percent of the human genome goes through this shuffling process as DNA is being transmitted from one generation to the next. These genomic regions have been largely unexplored to understand the history of human migration. (more…)

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