The migration route of modern humans out of Africa into Europe and Asia 50,000–100,000 years ago has remained an unresolved question, with conflicting historical, archaeological and genetic evidence for either a Northern (via Egypt and Sinai) or Southern (via Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula) route. Pagani et al. now provide support for a Northern migration route, based on analysis of the whole-genome sequences of 100 Egyptians and 125 Ethiopians. They further estimate the timing of the divergence of modern Eurasians from Egyptians and Ethiopians at 55,000 and 65,000 years ago, respectively.
References
Pagani, L. et al. Tracing the route of modern humans out of Africa by using 225 human genome sequences from Ethiopians and Egyptians. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 96, 986–991 (2015)
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Bahcall, O. Out-of-Africa migration routes. Nat Rev Genet 16, 377 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3974
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3974
