An interesting article in the NY Times summarizes research published in the journal "Science" of a DNA analysis from an old Aboriginal hair that indicates that the Aborigines may have been the first group of humans to leave Africa. One can read the NY Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/science/23aborigines.html
One key point from the NY Times article is made in the following quote: |Based on the rate of mutation in DNA, the geneticists estimate that |the Aborigines split from the ancestors of all Eurasians some |70,000 years ago, and that the ancestors of Europeans and |East Asians split from each other about 30,000 years ago. Of course, there are a number of questions that remain to be answered, two of which are covered in the NY Times article: (1) How did the dingo (a dog) get to Australia? (2) What happened about 6,000 years ago that the caused the tools to become more sophisticated, allowed the population to grow, and appears to be associated with the appearance of the dingo. (NOTE: answers involving space aliens or supernatural entities are not allowed.) And the Science article can be accessed here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/09/21/science.1211177 -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. No wiseguy comments a la Stephen Colbert such as "how can a cave painting be 35,000 years old if the world is only 6,000 years old?" For those who missed this, see: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/06/watch_werner_herzog_completely.html --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=12941 or send a blank email to leave-12941-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
