7 Papuans and 3 Native Australians 23andme format files

When it comes to ancient human lineages, few are as genetically distinct and ancient as the Aboriginal Australians and Papuans.

These populations trace their ancestry back over 50,000 years, making them among the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. After modern humans left Africa, one of the earliest waves of migration followed a southern coastal route through South Asia and reached Sahul—the ancient landmass that once connected Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania.

Following the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, rising sea levels isolated them from the rest of Eurasia. With no significant gene flow into Sahul for tens of thousands of years, these populations underwent a genetic bottleneck, leading to reduced genetic diversity in some regions.

The arrival of Europeans brought devastating changes. Disease, violence, displacement, and assimilation caused a dramatic population collapse in many Aboriginal Australian communities. In some areas, populations declined by more than 80% within a single century.

  For this video, I have prepared the genomes of 10 Aboriginal Ausralians and Papuans from the Human Origins dataset. I used my trait predictor tool to analyze their raw DNA, predicting phenotypes and likelihood of various conditions.