Origins of the Australian and New Guinean Aborigines

Abstract

Mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA) and Y chromosome studies indicate deep ancestry for both Australia and New Guinea peoples, with evidence for limited, shared genetic connection as well as ancient maternal lineages specific to both places. Several entry points into Sahul might explain haplotype distribution. Migration by northern as well as by a southern coastal route remain possible scenarios, as no single regional source population is identifiable.

Conservation implications for dingoes from the maternal and paternal genome: Multiple populations, dog introgression, and demography

“…This suggests that in Southeast Asia and Oceania, the movements of dogs, and presumably humans, are much more complex than assumed. Indeed, genetic research finds little evidence of Neolithic or Austronesian gene flow into Australia (Bergström et al, 2016;Haak et al, 2010;van Holst Pellekaan, 2013;Karafet et al, 2005;McEvoy et al, 2010;Rasmussen et al, 2011).…”

“…An alternative hypothesis is that dingoes and NGSD are part of an older dog radiation that immigrated into Australia via the land bridge between Australia and Papua New Guinea, which flooded 6,000-8,000 years BP (Cairns & Wilton, 2016). Some ethnographic evidence supports this hypothesis, for example, the lack of Neolithic cultural items, such as chickens and pigs, in Australia prior to European colonization (Larson et al, 2010;Oskarsson et al, 2011), lack of human genetic signatures indicating contact between South East Asia and Indigenous Australians (Brown, 2013;Haak et al, 2010;van Holst Pellekaan, 2001Karafet et al, 2005;McEvoy et al, 2010;Pugach, Delfin, Gunnarsdóttir, Kayser, & Stoneking, 2013), and the finding that dingoes only carry the two ancestral Amylase gene copies, consistent with their having diverged from modern domestic dogs before the agricultural era (Arendt, Cairns, Ballard, Savolainen, & Axelsson, 2016;Freedman et al, 2014). More recent molecular dating efforts based on mitochondrial divergence time suggest that dingoes could have arrived in Australia approximately 8,000-10,000 years BP (Cairns & Wilton, 2016;Oskarsson et al, 2011).…”