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. 2014 May 20;111(20):7248-53.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1323666111. Epub 2014 Apr 21.

Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia

Hugo Reyes-Centeno  1 , Silvia Ghirotto  2 , Florent Détroit  3 , Dominique Grimaud-Hervé  3 , Guido Barbujani  2 , Katerina Harvati  4
Affiliations

Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia

Hugo Reyes-Centeno et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Despite broad consensus on Africa as the main place of origin for anatomically modern humans, their dispersal pattern out of the continent continues to be intensely debated. In extant human populations, the observation of decreasing genetic and phenotypic diversity at increasing distances from sub-Saharan Africa has been interpreted as evidence for a single dispersal, accompanied by a series of founder effects. In such a scenario, modern human genetic and phenotypic variation was primarily generated through successive population bottlenecks and drift during a rapid worldwide expansion out of Africa in the Late Pleistocene. However, recent genetic studies, as well as accumulating archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence, challenge this parsimonious model. They suggest instead a "southern route" dispersal into Asia as early as the late Middle Pleistocene, followed by a separate dispersal into northern Eurasia. Here we test these competing out-of-Africa scenarios by modeling hypothetical geographical migration routes and assessing their correlation with neutral population differentiation, as measured by genetic polymorphisms and cranial shape variables of modern human populations from Africa and Asia. We show that both lines of evidence support a multiple-dispersals model in which Australo-Melanesian populations are relatively isolated descendants of an early dispersal, whereas other Asian populations are descended from, or highly admixed with, members of a subsequent migration event.

Keywords: SNPs; cranial diversity; genome diversity; human evolution; modern human origins.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Out-of-Africa dispersal models. Spheres are approximate centroids of populations sampled (Table 1), connecting lines are dispersal routes, and arrows are geographical waypoints (Table S4). The eastward expansion (EE) model connects populations primarily along a latitudinal axis (10, 12). The beachcomber single dispersal (BSD) model connects populations primarily along a coastal route (7). The multiple dispersals model (MD) connects hypothetical relic populations along a southern route (dotted lines) and north Eurasians along a northern route (13). The multiple dispersals with isolation (MDI) model assumes that only Australo-Melanesian populations retain a strong southern route biological signal (8). For simplicity, a Holocene map outline is shown.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Tracing the paths of modern humans from Africa.
    Weaver TD. Weaver TD. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 May 20;111(20):7170-1. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1405852111. Epub 2014 May 7. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014. PMID: 24808137 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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