Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history.
Authors | |
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 group. One individual carried the deeply divergent Y chromosome haplogroup A00, which today is found almost exclusively in the same region. 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. |
Year of Publication | 2020
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Journal | Nature
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Volume | 577
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Issue | 7792
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Pages | 665-670
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Date Published | 2020 01
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ISSN | 1476-4687
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DOI | 10.1038/s41586-020-1929-1
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PubMed ID | 31969706
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Links | |
Grant list | GM100233 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
HHMI / Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States
100719/Z/12/Z / WT_ / Wellcome Trust / United Kingdom
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