Wednesday, July 22, 2009

First Australians were Indians!

Whoa,hold your horses! I'm not a scientist to make such loud claims,this is what some Indian scientist is claiming.I'm just sharing with you what appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald today.So have a read and chew on it,and do comment on what you think.I seriously don't know if this report makes me happy or sad.Now I do remember seeing a programme called "Story of India",I think it was a BBC production and it had some really astonishingly revealing facts about South Indian evolution and they traced back the genes of South Indians to Africa.I used to always wonder why some of the mallus and Tamil's had African colour,curly hair and even features.Now it makes sense.Anyway read the gist of the article below:

First Australians were Indian: research

July 23, 2009

CLUES about how the first Aborigines arrived in Australia have been unveiled by Indian scientists. Based on a series of genetic tests, they believe Aborigines travelled from Africa to Australia via India.

Dr Raghavendra Rao and researchers from the Indian-government backed Anthropological Survey of India project found unique genetic mutations were shared between modern-day Indians and Aborigines, suggesting Australia's indigenous people had spent time on the subcontinent.

The scientists did genetic tests on 966 individuals from 26 of India's "relic populations" and identified seven people from central Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic tribes who shared genetic traits only found in Aborigines. "We found certain mutations in the DNA sequences of the Indian tribes … that are specific to Aborigines," Dr Rao said.

"This … suggests that the Aborigine population migrated to Australia via the so-called southern route."

Scientists believe the first modern humans began spreading around the world from Africa about 50,000 years ago. But little is known about which routes they took.

Some studies have suggested they used a single southern route stretching from the Horn of Africa, across the Red Sea into Arabia and southern Asia.

They were then believed to have moved along the coastlines of southern Asia, South-East Asia and Indonesia before arriving in Australia about 45,000 years ago.

Dr Rao said the new research, published by the online scientific journal BMC Evolutionary Biology yesterday, indicated there was direct DNA evidence about how modern humans spread from Africa 50,000 years ago. "In this respect, populations in the Indian subcontinent harbour DNA footprints of the earliest expansion out of Africa," he said.

It makes sense if you look at the path travelled........from Africa,it had to go through India and other parts of Asia and then down under.Interesting reading but how it will benefit us,I'm not sure.

Jai Ho

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