Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.
ICVS/3B's, PT Government Associate Laboratory, 4710-057 Braga/4806-909, Guimarães, Portugal.
Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 18;9(1):4728. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-41176-3.
Africa was the birth-place of Homo sapiens and has the earliest evidence for symbolic behaviour and complex technologies. The best-attested early flowering of these distinctive features was in a glacial refuge zone on the southern coast 100-70 ka, with fewer indications in eastern Africa until after 70 ka. Yet it was eastern Africa, not the south, that witnessed the first major demographic expansion, ~70-60 ka, which led to the peopling of the rest of the world. One possible explanation is that important cultural traits were transmitted from south to east at this time. Here we identify a mitochondrial signal of such a dispersal soon after ~70 ka - the only time in the last 200,000 years that humid climate conditions encompassed southern and tropical Africa. This dispersal immediately preceded the out-of-Africa expansions, potentially providing the trigger for these expansions by transmitting significant cultural elements from the southern African refuge.
非洲是智人的发源地，拥有最早的象征性行为和复杂技术的证据。这些独特特征最早的明显表现是在 10 万至 7 万年前的南部沿海冰川避难区，而在 7 万年前之前，东非的迹象较少。然而，正是在东非，而不是在南部，见证了第一次大规模人口扩张，约在 7 万至 6 万年前，这导致了世界其他地区的人口迁徙。一个可能的解释是，重要的文化特征此时从南方向东方传播。在这里，我们在~7 万年后不久发现了线粒体信号的这种扩散——这是过去 20 万年中唯一一次湿润的气候条件覆盖了南部和热带非洲。这种扩散发生在走出非洲的扩张之前，可能通过从南部非洲避难所传播重要的文化元素，为这些扩张提供了触发因素。
