Abstract
New Guineans represent one of the oldest locally continuous populations outside Africa, harboring among the greatest linguistic and genetic diversity on the planet. Archeological and genetic evidence suggest that their ancestors reached Sahul (present day New Guinea and Australia) by at least 55,000 years ago (kya). However, little is known about this early settlement phase or subsequent dispersal and population structuring over the subsequent period of time. Here we report 379 complete Papuan mitochondrial genomes from across Papua New Guinea, which allow us to reconstruct the phylogenetic and phylogeographic history of northern Sahul. Our results support the arrival of two groups of settlers in Sahul within the same broad time window (50–65 kya), each carrying a different set of maternal lineages and settling Northern and Southern Sahul separately. Strong geographic structure in northern Sahul remains visible today, indicating limited dispersal over time despite major climatic, cultural, and historical changes. However, following a period of isolation lasting nearly 20 ky after initial settlement, environmental changes postdating the Last Glacial Maximum stimulated diversification of mtDNA lineages and greater interactions within and beyond Northern Sahul, to Southern Sahul, Wallacea and beyond. Later, in the Holocene, populations from New Guinea, in contrast to those of Australia, participated in early interactions with incoming Asian populations from Island Southeast Asia and continuing into Oceania.
Highlights
Supplementary information The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.The island of New Guinea comprises an area of 785,000 km2 and hosts around 12 million people
In present-day geography, the Pleistocene Sahul continent can be divided into Northern Sahul, representing New Guinea and Near Oceania, while Southern Sahul corresponds to Australia
This is supported mainly by the fact that (1) mtDNA lineages found in New Guinea are not derived lineages of those found in Southern Sahul (Figs. 1 and S4), (2) the two regions of Northern and Southern Sahul host different deep rooted lineages with strong geographic structuring (Northern Sahul: M27, M28, M29, Q2, P1, P2, P10, P4a, and P13b; Southern Sahul: O, S, N13, M42a’c, P5, P6, P7, P8, and other P), and (3) all of these haplogroups are rooted in the age range of the initial settlement phase of Sahul (>50 kya), supported by most archeological and genetic evidence [4, 5, 30]
Summary
13 ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia in Papua New Guinea and 4 million in the western Indonesian half of the island), with the highest density in the intermountain valleys 1400–1850 m above sea level (masl). This is one of the most bio-culturally diverse regions on Earth [1] with more than 900 languages spoken, mostly Papuan, but with some Austronesian languages arriving in the last 3 ky [2, 3]. New Guinea represents approximately a third of the Sahul landmass and the most mountainous part of it, with peaks reaching 4900 masl
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