ABOVE: Leang Panninge cave in Indonesia, the site where the remains were discovered
LEANG PANNINGE RESEARCH TEAM
Researchers have discovered a 7,200-year-old skeleton of a young woman in a cave in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, that provides new insight into the migration patterns of early humans. DNA from the remains reveals that the while the woman showed some genetic similarities to present-day Papuan and Indigenous Australian groups, she had largely East Asian ancestry, challenging the prevailing view that people from East Asia only arrived in the region around 3,500 years ago. The findings were published on Wednesday (August 25) in Nature.
“This is the first time anyone’s found ancient human DNA” in the region known as Wallacea, the string of islands between mainland Asia and Australia, study coauthor Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Brisbane, tells Nature.
The team discovered the remains in Leang Panninge cave during an excavation that ...
