Earliest humans traced to Botswana controversial new study suggests


Earliest humans traced back to Botswana


A study which has been condemned for being misleading has suggested that human kind first began in Botswana.

The study traced the maternal DNA of the oldest available focal humans and found that the closest living DNA is present in modern people living in Botswana.

Whilst this is a possible statistical correlation it may also be a false provocation of statistics. The small sample size of just over one thousand samples and the comparison with living humans to identify habitats from 200’000 years ago may not be a true correlation.

The finding is certainly interesting and has sparked the interest of researchers all over the world. Yet the group of researchers who published the paper have been warned not to over state the findings as fact.

Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of Sydney, Australia have claimed their research proves that early humans stayed in Botswana for 70’000 years around what was Africa’s largest lake, the now dried up lake bed that forms the Kalahari desert.

The study claims that their evidence proves that humans split into three groups after the lake dried up due to climate change, one group remained and is genetically still visible in the are to date. One group left and headed North East and another headed to the coast on the South West.

This movement however has been challenged as inaccurate my several key institutions.

al sahawat times map of Kalahari desert


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About the Author

Esteban Gaviria
Periodista de Los Tiempos Al-Sahawat en Barcelona, España. Journalist for Al-Sahawat Times in Barcelona, Spain. Giornalista per Al-Sahawat Times in Barcelona, Spagna.