Modern human population ancestors separated 100,000 years ago, well before archaeological evidence of modernity

Here the Simons Genome Diversity Project data set is reported: high quality genomes from 300 individuals from 142 diverse populations.

These genomes include at least 5.8 million base pairs that are not present in the human reference genome. The scientists analysis reveals key features of the landscape of human genome variation, including that the rate of accumulation of mutations has accelerated by about 5% in non-Africans compared to Africans since divergence. They show that the ancestors of some pairs of present-day human populations were substantially separated by 100,000 years ago, well before the archaeologically attested onset of behavioural modernity. They also demonstrate that indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andamanese do not derive substantial ancestry from an early dispersal of modern humans; instead, their modern human ancestry is consistent with coming from the same source as that of other non-Africans.

The Simons Genome Diversity Project: 300 genomes from 142 diverse populations

Swapan Mallick et al.

DOI:10.1038/nature18964

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