Proto-Australoid

According to a hypothesis developed during the 1950s, the Proto-Australoids were an ancient hunter-gatherer people descended from the first major wave of modern humans to leave Africa 50,000 years ago. Characterised by gracile body types, they are thought to have had dark skin colour approaching black and wavy or curly black hair. They had long heads and broad, flat noses.^[1]

Migration

The proto-Australoids are thought to have begun their exodus out of Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. They are thought to have used a simple form of watercraft to cross the narrow span of water between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. From there it is hypothesized that they followed a coastal route through south Asia into Southeast Asia. While some individuals made a short oceanic voyage into Australia (50-60 thousand years ago), giving rise to the Australian Aborigines, others continued their coastal migration north into East Asia.

Although strongly debated, it is believed that some proto-Australoid tribes may have continued their coastal migration north into East Asia, from where they pushed on into Siberia and eventually crossed the Bering Land Bridge (or followed a coastal route) into the Americas, contributing to a hypothetical population of Pre-Siberian American Aborigines.

Proponents of a proto-Australoid population wave theorize that remnants of this early founding population may be found today in Southern portion of the subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Oceania. Some have proposed connections to the Ainu of Japan. Genetically, they have been tentatively associated by some authors with mtDNA haplogroup M and Y-chromosome Haplogroup C,^[2] the earliest Homo Sapiens lineages thought to have migrated outside of Africa.^[3]

See also

• Australoid

Notes