Population inter-connectivity over the past 120,000 years explains distribution and diversity of Central African hunter-gatherers
View ORCID ProfileCecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Lane Atmore, Jesus Olivero, Karen Lupo, Andrea Manica, Lucio Vinicius, Andrea Migliano
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.21.449204

Abstract
The evolutionary history of African hunter-gatherers holds key insights into modern human diversity. Here we combine ethnographic and genetic data on Central African hunter-gatherers (CAHG) to show that their current distribution and density is explained by ecology rather than by a displacement to marginal habitats due to recent farming expansions, as commonly assumed. We also predicted hunter-gatherer presence across Central Africa over the past 120,000 years using paleoclimatic reconstructions, which were statistically validated by dated archaeological sites. Finally, we show that genomic estimates of separation times between CAHG groups match our ecological estimates of periods favouring population splits, and that recoveries of connectivity would have facilitated subsequent gene-flow. Our results reveal that CAHG stem from a deep history of partially connected populations. This form of sociality allowed the coexistence of relatively large effective population sizes and local differentiation, with important implications for the evolution of genetic and cultural diversity in Homo sapiens.

On Monday, June 21, 2021 at 5:42:55 PM UTC-4, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
> Population inter-connectivity over the past 120,000 years explains distribution and diversity of Central African hunter-gatherers
> View ORCID ProfileCecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Lane Atmore, Jesus Olivero, Karen Lupo, Andrea Manica, Lucio Vinicius, Andrea Migliano
> doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.21.449204
>
> Abstract
> The evolutionary history of African hunter-gatherers holds key insights into modern human diversity. Here we combine ethnographic and genetic data on Central African hunter-gatherers (CAHG) to show that their current distribution and density is explained by ecology rather than by a displacement to marginal habitats due to recent farming expansions, as commonly assumed. We also predicted hunter-gatherer presence across Central Africa over the past 120,000 years using paleoclimatic reconstructions, which were statistically validated by dated archaeological sites. Finally, we show that genomic estimates of separation times between CAHG groups match our ecological estimates of periods favouring population splits, and that recoveries of connectivity would have facilitated subsequent gene-flow. Our results reveal that CAHG stem from a deep history of partially connected populations. This form of sociality allowed the coexistence of relatively large effective population sizes and local differentiation, with important implications for the evolution of genetic and cultural diversity in Homo sapiens.

This eliminates PC's contention that Pygmies didn't live in tropical forests until Bantu agricultural villages arrived to provide them foods etc.