A western route of prehistoric human migration from Africa i
Mar 2, 2021 6:15:34 GMT -5
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Post by anansi on Mar 2, 2021 6:15:34 GMT -5
The below info is not new to this Site Xyyman used to give us updates on this type of studies, however I've found a link that was no longer functioning on Xyyman's thread
[A western route of prehistoric human migration from Africa into the Iberian Peninsulab
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.2288
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[A western route of prehistoric human migration from Africa into the Iberian Peninsulab
.Abstract
Being at the western fringe of Europe, Iberia had a peculiar prehistory and a complex pattern of Neolithization. A few studies, all based on modern populations, reported the presence of DNA of likely African origin in this region, generally concluding it was the result of recent gene flow, probably during the Islamic period. Here, we provide evidence of much older gene flow from Africa to Iberia by sequencing whole genomes from four human remains from northern Portugal and southern Spain dated around 4000 years BP (from the Middle Neolithic to the Bronze Age). We found one of them to carry an unequivocal sub-Saharan mitogenome of most probably West or West-Central African origin, to our knowledge never reported before in prehistoric remains outside Africa. Our analyses of ancient nuclear genomes show small but significant levels of sub-Saharan African affinity in several ancient Iberian samples, which indicates that what we detected was not an occasional individual phenomenon, but an admixture event recognizable at the population level. We interpret this result as evidence of an early migration process from Africa into the Iberian Peninsula through a western route, possibly across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Being at the western fringe of Europe, Iberia had a peculiar prehistory and a complex pattern of Neolithization. A few studies, all based on modern populations, reported the presence of DNA of likely African origin in this region, generally concluding it was the result of recent gene flow, probably during the Islamic period. Here, we provide evidence of much older gene flow from Africa to Iberia by sequencing whole genomes from four human remains from northern Portugal and southern Spain dated around 4000 years BP (from the Middle Neolithic to the Bronze Age). We found one of them to carry an unequivocal sub-Saharan mitogenome of most probably West or West-Central African origin, to our knowledge never reported before in prehistoric remains outside Africa. Our analyses of ancient nuclear genomes show small but significant levels of sub-Saharan African affinity in several ancient Iberian samples, which indicates that what we detected was not an occasional individual phenomenon, but an admixture event recognizable at the population level. We interpret this result as evidence of an early migration process from Africa into the Iberian Peninsula through a western route, possibly across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Introduction
Modern European populations show a southwest-northeast gradient of African diversity with its maximum in Spain [1,2]. It is unclear if this gradient is the consequence of ancient prehistoric contacts or, instead, if it is owing to African migrations into Europe during historical times. Based on genome-wide data from modern populations, African admixture has been estimated to around the time of the Muslim expansion into Iberia [2,3]. However, analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosomes in modern individuals suggest a much older admixture event, possibly dated around 10 000–8000 years before present (yBP), [4–6]. One of the strongest pieces of evidence is the existence of mitochondrial haplotypes belonging to the sub-Saharan L macro-haplogroup that form European-specific subclades, suggesting they have evolved locally in Europe [5–
Modern European populations show a southwest-northeast gradient of African diversity with its maximum in Spain [1,2]. It is unclear if this gradient is the consequence of ancient prehistoric contacts or, instead, if it is owing to African migrations into Europe during historical times. Based on genome-wide data from modern populations, African admixture has been estimated to around the time of the Muslim expansion into Iberia [2,3]. However, analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosomes in modern individuals suggest a much older admixture event, possibly dated around 10 000–8000 years before present (yBP), [4–6]. One of the strongest pieces of evidence is the existence of mitochondrial haplotypes belonging to the sub-Saharan L macro-haplogroup that form European-specific subclades, suggesting they have evolved locally in Europe [5–
Here we used a combination of shotgun and whole-genome capture (WGC) strategies to generate whole-genome data from four prehistoric human remains (coverage from 0.4–4.8×) and 13 mitogenomes from the Iberian Peninsula, dated well before any historical African presence in Iberia. We found one sample from Andalusia (southern Spain) to carry the sub-Saharan mitochondrial haplogroup L2a1, to our knowledge never observed before in ancient human remains outside Africa. In addition, the analyses of the ancient nuclear genomes revealed an increased similarity between Middle Neolithic/Chalcolithic (MN/ChL) samples from Spain and ancient sub-Saharan remains. To our knowledge, this study reports for the first time, both at nuclear and mitochondrial level, direct evidence of prehistoric northbound gene flow from Africa into Europe, probably following a trans-Mediterranean western route.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.2288
Go here for more.
