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Population inter-connectivity over the past 120,000 years explains distribution and diversity of Central African hunter-gatherers
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2021.
-
Abstract
- The evolutionary history of African hunter-gatherers holds key insights into modern human diversity. Here we combine ethnographic and genetic data on Central African hunter-gatherers (CAHG) to show that their current distribution and density is explained by ecology rather than by a displacement to marginal habitats due to recent farming expansions, as commonly assumed. We also predict hunter-gatherer presence across Central Africa over the past 120,000 years using paleoclimatic reconstructions, which were statistically validated by dated archaeological sites. Finally, we show that genomic estimates of separation times between CAHG groups match our ecological estimates of periods favouring population splits, and that recoveries of connectivity would have facilitated subsequent gene-flow. Our results reveal that CAHG stem from a deep history of partially connected populations. This form of sociality allowed the coexistence of relatively large effective population sizes and local differentiation, with important implications for the evolution of genetic and cultural diversity in Homo sapiens.
- Subjects :
- 10207 Department of Anthropology
media_common.quotation_subject
Ecology (disciplines)
Population
hunter-gatherers
10127 Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
Deep history
Effective population size
Cultural diversity
population dynamics
Humans
education
Anthropology, Cultural
Sociality
media_common
Population Density
1000 Multidisciplinary
education.field_of_study
Central Africa
Multidisciplinary
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
Ecology
Genetic Variation
Agriculture
environmental change
Cultural Diversity
Geography
Archaeology
ecological niche modelling
Homo sapiens
Africa
Diversity (politics)
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00278424
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2431718ce8d1b51f612d9ba43db3b622