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A new study that analyzed DNA evidence of modern humans may have shed new light on the scientific debate about the route early humans chose when they left Africa to travel to Asia and Europe.
According to the findings of the study, there are two possible routes the early humans could have taken to reach Europe and Asia.
One of them is the northern route, through Egypt, and the other one is the southern route through Ethiopia.
The scientists analyzed genetic data collected from six modern populations living in North Africa and it confirms the theory that the early human ancestors traveled through Egypt and the Sinai on the route called Levantine corridor.
The researchers detailed their findings in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
The analysis suggests that modern Egyptians are more similar, genetically speaking, to people that are not African Eurasian than to Ethiopians.
This means that before leaving Africa, the early human ancestors had a rest stop in Egypt.
Luca Pagani, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and one of the scientists involved in the new study, explained that the new findings shed new light on the history and evolution of Eurasians.
It also helps scientists better understand human evolution in general.
Pagani finds it very exciting that analyzing the DNA of modern people helps scientists understand what happened as far back as more than 60,000 years ago.
However, the researchers can only estimate the date of the migration; previous studies suggest that early human left Africa about 130,000 year ago.
But still, the new study is very strong evidence that early human migration started in Africa and moved through Egypt to get to Asia and Europe.
Toomas Kivisild, scientists at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, explained that the new study does not intent to cause any controversies on the possible routes early human ancestors might have taken.
The study reveals that leaving Africa, the humans went north, through Egypt, not south.
The new findings confirm previous the results of previous research which suggests that there are genetic similarities between Neanderthals and non-African people who were living in the Levantine corridor thousands of years ago.
Recently, researchers discovered in Israel, near the northern migration route, 55,000-year-old human fossils.
However, the study does not provide answers to all the questions regarding early human migration, researchers say.
One of the important questions is whether other migrations left Africa around that time but left no traces in the genomes of modern people.
Image Source: phys
