Once upon a time, a man settled these places …
Sahul is a continent that does not exist today, which until the last glaciation united modern Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania by land isthmuses. A new study confirms that the first people were here and founded settlements more than 50 thousand years ago - much earlier than in Europe. People moved here from Africa (which is confirmed by the analysis of the genome) and found themselves here in isolation for a long time, on the Sahul, a continent that has sunk into oblivion …
Geneticists have sequenced the Y-chromosome DNA of 13 representatives of the ancestors of modern Australian aborigines. This chromosome is passed only through the male line (from father to son). The study points to the insignificant effect of migration to Australia of people from Hindustan, which could have occurred four to five thousand years ago, or none at all. Europe was settled at about the same time.
This means that the aborigines of Australia have been in genetic isolation from the rest of the world for 50 thousand years - approximately since their ancestors left Africa and entered the Sahul territory. The Australians were thus among the first settlers outside Africa.
They could have been on Sahul several thousand years earlier than people in Europe. It is believed that in Eurasia (more precisely, Asia), modern man appeared 47-65 thousand years ago. The latest data on crossing between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals (a hundred thousand years ago - for Altai and 80-120 thousand years ago - for China) push the first wave of migration of modern people from Africa even further.
About 98 million years ago, Sahul detached from the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, leading to the preservation of a unique ecosystem in Australia. At the time of human arrival, Australia was a continent dominated by large marsupials and huge birds, most of which then disappeared. Scientists believe that man is to blame for this: in some 14 thousand years he settled across the continent and destroyed many species of animals.
The isthmus between Australia and New Guinea finally disappeared, according to various estimates, not earlier than four thousand years ago. At about the same time, the settlement of Polynesia began …