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DNA Analysis Reveals Two Routes Ancient Humans Used to Reach Australia
- Researchers find two distinct dispersal routes into Sahul dating to about 60,000 years ago.
- Southern route lineages account for about two-thirds of early arrivals to Australia.
- Northern route lineages linked to the Philippines, Sulawesi, and Papua New Guinea reached Sahul.
- Sahul acted as a now-submerged landmass during the Pleistocene when sea levels were lower.
- The study integrates genetic data with archaeological and climatic evidence.
- Most extant Sahul and Near Oceania lineages originate from northern-route migrations.
- Early pioneers via the northern route may have reached the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands soon after Sahul.
- The two-route model supports an older, long chronology of settlement in Australia.
- The Science Advances study combines mutation rates with population connections to map dispersals.
- The full research was published in Science Advances.
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