Melanesia

Papua - New Guinea

Modern humans reached Southeast Asia and Oceania in one of the first dispersals out of Africa. The resulting temporal overlap of modern and archaic humans-and the apparent morphological continuity between them-has led to claims of gene flow between Homo sapiens and H. erectus. (11170891)

Much more recently, an agricultural technology from mainland Asia spread into the region, possibly in association with Austronesian languages. (11170891)

Using detailed genealogical study of Y chromosome variation, the majority of current Austronesian speakers trace their paternal heritage to Pleistocene settlers in the region, as opposed to more-recent agricultural immigrants. (11170891)

A fraction of the paternal heritage, however, appears to be associated with more-recent immigrants from northern populations. (11170891)

The northern Neolithic component is very unevenly dispersed through the region, with a higher contribution in Southeast Asia and a nearly complete absence in Melanesia. (11170891)

Contrary to claims of gene flow (under regional continuity) between H. erectus and H. sapiens, no ancestral Y chromosome lineages have been found in a set of 1,209 samples. The finding excludes the possibility that early hominids contributed significantly to the paternal heritage of the region. (11170891)

The among-group variation is structured by island, island size, and also by language affiliation. The more isolated inland Papuan-speaking groups on the largest islands have the greatest distinctions, while shore dwelling populations are considerably less diverse (at the same time, within-group haplotype diversity is less in the most isolated groups). Persistent differences between shore and inland groups in effective population sizes and marital migration rates probably cause these differences. (17327912)

Coalescence estimates based on synonymous transitions in the coding region suggest an initial settlement and expansion in the region at approximately 30-50,000 years before present (YBP), and a second important expansion from Island Southeast Asia/Taiwan during the interval approximately 3,500-8,000 YBP. (17327912)

Features

early population: 30 000-40 000 years BP
long-term isolation
austronesian expansion: 3 500 years BP

Human pathology

Melanesia

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