资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Anatomically modern humans originated in Africa around 200聽thousand years ago (ka)^1,2,3,4. Although some of the oldest skeletal remains suggest an eastern African origin², southern Africa is home to contemporary populations that represent the earliest branch of human genetic phylogeny^5,6. Here we generate, to our knowledge, the largest resource for the poorly represented and deepest-rooting maternal L0 mitochondrial DNA branch (198 new mitogenomes for a total of 1,217 mitogenomes) from contemporary southern Africans and show the geographical isolation of L0d1鈥?, L0k and L0g KhoeSan descendants south of the Zambezi river in Africa. By establishing mitogenomic timelines, frequencies and dispersals, we show that the L0 lineage emerged within the residual Makgadikgadi鈥揙kavango palaeo-wetland of southern Africa⁷, approximately 200聽ka (95% confidence interval, 240鈥?65聽ka). Genetic divergence points to a sustained 70,000-year-long existence of the L0 lineage before an out-of-homeland northeast鈥搒outhwest dispersal between 130 and 110聽ka. Palaeo-climate proxy and model data suggest that increased humidity opened green corridors, first to the northeast then to the southwest. Subsequent drying of the homeland corresponds to a sustained effective population size (L0k), whereas wet鈥揹ry cycles and probable adaptation to marine foraging allowed the southwestern migrants to achieve population growth (L0d1鈥?), as supported by extensive south-coastal archaeological evidence^8,9,10. Taken together, we propose a southern African origin of anatomically modern humans with sustained homeland occupation before the first migrations of people that聽appear to have聽been driven by regional climate聽changes.