2024-09-25 17:53:22
A team of researchers from the University of Cape Town and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have reconstructed the oldest human genomes ever found in South Africa. The genomes are from two people who lived about 10,000 years ago, AFP reports.
The genetic sequences were from a man and a woman whose remains were found in a rock shelter near the southern coastal town of George, about 370 kilometers east of Cape Town, Victoria Gibbon, a professor of biological anthropology at the University of Cape Town, told Deutsche Welle.
They are among 13 sequences reconstructed from people whose remains were found at the Oakhurst rock shelter, and who lived between 1,300 and 10,000 years ago. Prior to these discoveries, the oldest genomes reconstructed from the region date back about 2,000 years.
Surprisingly, the Oakhurst study found that the oldest genomes were genetically similar to the San and Khoekhoe groups living in the same region today, the University of Cape Town said in a statement.
According to Joscha Gretzinger, lead author of the study, similar studies in Europe reveal a history of large-scale genetic changes due to human movements over the past 10,000 years. “These new results from southernmost Africa are quite different and suggest a long history of relative genetic stability,” he added.
This changed only about 1,200 years ago, when newcomers arrived, writes NOVA. They introduced pastoralism, agriculture, as well as new languages to the region and began to interact with local groups of hunters and gatherers of edible plants and fruits.
“Although some of the world’s earliest evidence of modern humans can be traced to South Africa, it is generally not well preserved,” Prof Gibbon told AFP.
“Newer technology allows this DNA to be obtained,” she added.