Northern Eurasian Supercluster
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Using gene frequency data for 120 alleles, Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1988) concluded that the major split of human populations separates Africans from non-Africans and that the second split separates a North Eurasian supercluster (Caucasians, Northeast Asians, and Amerindians) from a Southeast Asian supercluster (Southeast Asians, Australians, Papua New Guineans, and Pacific Islanders).
A later paper by Nei and Roychoudhury (1993) Abstract (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=npg&cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8412653&dopt=Abstract) PDF (http://www.bio.psu.edu/People/Faculty/Nei/Lab/1993-nei-roychoudhury.pdf) uses statistical methods it claims to be superior (a modified distance function, and NJ method instead of UPGMA), and concludes that while the biggest genetic division is still between Africans and non-Africans, after this first split, Caucasians and then Native Americans both split from East Asians before Australopapuans do.
One problem with this hypothesis is that Australians and Papuans have several characteristics (e.g., dark skin, frizzled hair, etc.) that are similar to those of black Africans. This problem can be explained either by the hypothesis of convergent evolution or by the hypothesis (Nei and Ota 1991) that there are two routes of human migration to Australia and New Guinea from Africa, one of two main variants of the Single-origin hypothesis regarding the migration of modern humans out of Africa some 50,000 years B.P.
(Nei and Ota 1991) suggests two migrations, with the ancestors of Australoids leaving Africa first via the Bab-el-Mandeb and following the Arabian and Indian coastline east, and the ancestors of Northern Eurasians leaving Africa sometime later via Sinai. A second theory, favored by Stephen Oppenheimer, is that there was only one significant migration out of Africa, occurring along the southern route, and that all non-African (and North African) peoples are descended from that single migration of perhaps a few dozen to a few hundred individuals. The split between Northern Eurasians (often referred to simply as Eurasians) and Southeast Asians (Australoids, not modern Southeast Asians) would have occured sometime after this exodus.
See also:
- Eurasian
- Southeast Asian Supercluster
- Caucasoid
- Mongoloid
- Australoid
- Negroid
- Capoid
- Northern Mongoloid
- Southern Mongoloid
- Europid
- European
- Asian
- Middle Eastern
- Indian subcontinent
- Pacific Islander
- Native American
- Race
- Gene
- DNA
- Y-chromosomal Adam
- Mitochondrial Eve
- Single-origin hypothesis
Sources:
- Physical Anthropology (Eighth Edition) by Philip L. Stein & Bruce M. Rowe
- The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa by Stephen Oppenheimer
- The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey by Spencer Wells
- Mapping Human History: Genes, Race and Our Common Origins by Steve Olson
- The History and Geography of Human Genes by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi & Alberto Piazza
Links:
- Bopedia Race page (http://bopedia.com/en/wikipedia/r/ra/race.html)
