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A Genetic Perspective on African Prehistory

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Book cover Africa from MIS 6-2

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

The various genetic systems (mitochondrial DNA, the Y-chromosome and the genome-wide autosomes) indicate that Africa is the most genetically diverse continent in the world and the most likely place of origin for anatomically modern humans. However, where in Africa modern humans arose and how the current genetic makeup within the continent was shaped is still open to debate. Here, we summarize the debate and focus especially on the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and a recently revised chronology for the African mtDNA tree. We discuss the possible origin of modern humans in southern, eastern or Central Africa; the possibility of a migration from southern to eastern Africa more than 100 ka, carrying lineages within mtDNA haplogroup L0; the evidence for a climate-change-mediated population expansion in eastern Africa involving mtDNA haplogroup L3, leading to the “out-of-Africa” migration around 70–60 ka; the re-population of North Africa from the Near East around 40–30 ka suggested by mtDNA haplogroups U6 and M1; the evidence for population expansions and dispersals across the continent at the onset of the Holocene ; and the impact of the Bantu dispersals in Central, eastern and southern Africa within the last few millennia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In fact Pakistan is now the most westerly place where the rest of M is found.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the referees, in particular Peter Mitchell, for their detailed and constructive comments, which have improved the chapter enormously, even if not quite as much as they might have liked. FCT, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, supported this work through the personal grants to P.S. (SFRH/BPD/64233/2009) and T.R. (under the project PTDC/CS-ANT/113832/2009). IPATIMUP is an Associate Laboratory of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education and is partially supported by FCT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IPATIMUP (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto), Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Pedro Soares, Teresa Rito & Luísa Pereira

  2. CBMA (Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology), Department of Biology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal

    Pedro Soares

  3. Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Health Sciences, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal

    Teresa Rito

  4. ICVS/3B’s - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal

    Teresa Rito

  5. Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Luísa Pereira

  6. Department of Biological Sciences, School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, UK

    Martin B. Richards

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  1. Pedro Soares
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Correspondence to Martin B. Richards .

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  1. University of Cambridge, McDonald Inst. for Archaeological Rsch, United Kingdom

    Sacha C. Jones

  2. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, ANN ARBOR, Michigan, USA

    Brian A. Stewart

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Soares, P., Rito, T., Pereira, L., Richards, M.B. (2016). A Genetic Perspective on African Prehistory. In: Jones, S., Stewart, B. (eds) Africa from MIS 6-2. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7520-5_18

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