Select your language

Genomic insights into the peopling of the Southwest Pacific

Skoglund Pontus, Posth Cosimo, Sirak Kendra, Spriggs Matthew, Valentin Frederique, Bedford Stuart, Clark Geoffrey, Reepmeyer Christian, Petchey Fiona, Fernandes Daniel, Fu Qiaomei, Harney Eadaoin, Lipson Mark, Mallick Swapan, Novak Mario, Rohland Nadin, Stewardson Kristin, Abdullah Syafiq, P. Cox Murray, Friedlaender Françoise R., Friedlaender Jonathan S., Kivisild Toomas, Koki George, Kusuma Pradiptajati, Merriwether D. Andrew, Ricaut Francois-X., Wee Joseph T. S., Patterson Nick, Krause Johannes, Pinhasi Ron, Reich David. 2016. Nature.
Genomic insights into the peopling of the Southwest Pacific
ARTICLE, (2016 ) - PUBLISHEDVERSION - English (en-GB)
Nature
OPENACCESS - .
Audience : RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS

Subject
Biological sciences, Genetics, Population genetics, Genetic variation, Biological sciences, Evolutionary biology
Domains
Archéologie, Anthropologie, Biologie, Histoire, Sciences Sociales, Sciences humaines
Description

The appearance of people associated with the Lapita culture in the South Pacific around 3,000 years ago marked the beginning of the last major human dispersal to unpopulated lands. However, the relationship of these pioneers to the long-established Papuan people of the New Guinea region is unclear. Here we present genome-wide ancient DNA data from three individuals from Vanuatu (about 3,100-2,700 years before present) and one from Tonga (about 2,700-2,300 years before present), and analyse them with data from 778 present-day East Asians and Oceanians. Today, indigenous people of the South Pacific harbour a mixture of ancestry from Papuans and a population of East Asian origin that no longer exists in unmixed form, but is a match to the ancient individuals. Most analyses have interpreted the minimum of twenty-five per cent Papuan ancestry in the region today as evidence that the first humans to reach Remote Oceania, including Polynesia, were derived from population mixtures near New Guinea, before their further expansion into Remote Oceania. However, our finding that the ancient individuals had little to no Papuan ancestry implies that later human population movements spread Papuan ancestry through the South Pacific after the first peopling of the islands.

Keywords
Language
English (en-GB)
Creators
Skoglund Pontus, Posth Cosimo, Sirak Kendra, Spriggs Matthew, Valentin Frederique, Bedford Stuart, Clark Geoffrey, Reepmeyer Christian, Petchey Fiona, Fernandes Daniel, Fu Qiaomei, Harney Eadaoin, Lipson Mark, Mallick Swapan, Novak Mario, Rohland Nadin, Stewardson Kristin, Abdullah Syafiq, P. Cox Murray, Friedlaender Françoise R., Friedlaender Jonathan S., Kivisild Toomas, Koki George, Kusuma Pradiptajati, Merriwether D. Andrew, Ricaut Francois-X., Wee Joseph T. S., Patterson Nick, Krause Johannes, Pinhasi Ron, Reich David
Contributors
Sources
Nature, 538(7626):510-513
Coverage
Pacific
Name of newspaper
Nature