An Ancient Link To Africa Lives On In Bay Of Bengal

The New York Times ^ | 12-10-2002 | Nicholas Wade

[blam]

An Ancient Link to Africa Lives on in Bay of Bengal

By NICHOLAS WADE

Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago east of India, are direct descendants of the first modern humans to have inhabited Asia, geneticists conclude in a new study.

But the islanders lack a distinctive genetic feature found among Australian aborigines, another early group to leave Africa, suggesting they were part of a separate exodus.

The Andaman Islanders are "arguably the most enigmatic people on our planet," a team of geneticists led by Dr. Erika Hagelberg of the University of Oslo write in the journal Current Biology.

Their physical features — short stature, dark skin, peppercorn hair and large buttocks — are characteristic of African Pygmies. "They look like they belong in Africa, but here they are sitting in this island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean," said Dr. Peter Underhill of Stanford University, a co-author of the new report.

[blam]

Click on the source for the rest of this article.

It just gets stranger and stranger.

[blam]

Ping.

[RightWhale]

That's more like it. 40,000 to 50,000 years ago is getting up to significant years. These wouldn't be related to those Irish sea peoples, would they?

[eddie willers]

It is also possible, he said, that their resemblance to African Pygmies is a human adaptation to living in forests that the two populations developed independently.

Big butts are an advantage in the forest?

[Rytwyng]

Big butts are an advantage in the forest?

Yes. The body needs to store its emergency fat reserve somewhere... in a cold climate, storing it widely around the body helps insulate the person, but in a hot climate, better to concentrate the storage on one place.

[xJones]

Stop continental drift!

[eddie willers]

Good point.

[eddie willers]

LOL!

[eddie willers]

better to concentrate the storage on one place.

Plus it gives the tigers a tasty little treat. ;o)

[r9etb]

It just gets stranger and stranger.

Indeed. But it's only strange because of the assumptions made to date about human movement, and human abilities. If modern human beans have been around for 100,000 years, there's absolutely no reason to expect that they were stupid and sedentary for 90% of their history. Yet that's the apparent assumption.

Consider how little physical evidence there is of civilizations from 5,000 years ago, and then multiply the time span by 10 -- civilizations could have existed, and we'd be hard pressed to find them (or to distinguish them from newer ones....)

Now if you toss in a volcano bigger than the one that caused The Year Without a Summer in 1816, then you can kill off most of humanity, and destroy any civilizations that may have existed prior to the explosion.

[Little Bill]

Kinda looks like the College, we are all one, types are boming to my argurement about remnants. The out of Africa arguement lacks logical consistancy, id, we dug 'em there therefore that is where they started. BS.

Now, when they start to realize that the Minoan civilation was drenched in blood, expantionist, and warlike, my life will be complete.

[blam]

"These wouldn't be related to those Irish sea peoples, would they?"

The Fomorians? No, they were big and black. These folks are likely to be the origins of the legend of the Leprechauns.

Also, I wonder how their DNA will compare to the San Bushmen in Africa who are Mongols.

[blam]

"Now if you toss in a volcano bigger than the one that caused The Year Without a Summer in 1816, then you can kill off most of humanity, and destroy any civilizations that may have existed prior to the explosion."

I agree with your points.

When Toba exploded 75,000 years ago, some estimate that only 5,000 humans worldwide survived.

[Wonder Warthog]

When Toba exploded 75,000 years ago, some estimate that only 5,000 humans worldwide survived."

A more likely explanation for the "lack of evidence for modern humans" is that most of them were living on coastal plains and along river estuaries. The "big thaws" from the LAST episode of global warming then put the evidence 150 meters below the ocean's surface.

[Junior]

Ping.

[NukeMan]

But it's only strange because of the assumptions made to date about human movement, and human abilities. If modern human beans have been around for 100,000 years, there's absolutely no reason to expect that they were stupid and sedentary for 90% of their history. Yet that's the apparent assumption.

Heh! You typed in my response, just about verbatim.

[blam]

"A more likely explanation for the "lack of evidence for modern humans" is that most of them were living on coastal plains and along river estuaries. The "big thaws" from the LAST episode of global warming then put the evidence 150 meters below the ocean's surface."

You'll get no argument from me or most on this thread on this point.

[scripter]

If modern human beans ...

:-)

[blam]

And then...there is thoroughly modern Mungo Man who isn't related to anyone that is alive today.

[GOP_1900AD]

Now we can see the apparent origin of the "nga" (people in southern Thailand who have nappy hair and very dark skin).