The Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal

A combination of evidence, based on genetic, fossil and archaeological findings, indicates that Homo sapiens spread out of Africa between ~70-60 thousand years ago (kya). However, it appears that once outside of Africa, human populations did not expand across all of Eurasia until ~45 kya. The geogra...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2024-03, Vol.15 (1), p.1882-1882, Article 1882
Main Authors: Vallini, Leonardo, Zampieri, Carlo, Shoaee, Mohamed Javad, Bortolini, Eugenio, Marciani, Giulia, Aneli, Serena, Pievani, Telmo, Benazzi, Stefano, Barausse, Alberto, Mezzavilla, Massimo, Petraglia, Michael D., Pagani, Luca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/181/19/2471
631/181/2474
631/181/27
631/181/457
704/106/413
Africa
Archaeology
Asian people
Biological Evolution
Cultural heritage
Ecological models
Fossils
Genealogy
Genomes
Geographical locations
Homo sapiens
Human populations
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Models, Theoretical
multidisciplinary
Neolithic
Populations
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Settlers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A combination of evidence, based on genetic, fossil and archaeological findings, indicates that Homo sapiens spread out of Africa between ~70-60 thousand years ago (kya). However, it appears that once outside of Africa, human populations did not expand across all of Eurasia until ~45 kya. The geographic whereabouts of these early settlers in the timeframe between ~70-60 to 45 kya has been difficult to reconcile. Here we combine genetic evidence and palaeoecological models to infer the geographic location that acted as the Hub for our species during the early phases of colonisation of Eurasia. Leveraging on available genomic evidence we show that populations from the Persian Plateau carry an ancestry component that closely matches the population that settled the Hub outside Africa. With the paleoclimatic data available to date, we built ecological models showing that the Persian Plateau was suitable for human occupation and that it could sustain a larger population compared to other West Asian regions, strengthening this claim. The timing and chronology of the movement of Homo sapiens after migration out of Africa remains unclear. Here, the authors combine a genetic approach with a palaeoecological model to estimate that the Persian Plateau could have been a hub for migration out of Africa, suggesting the environment may have been suitable for population maintenance.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-46161-7