Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
National Geographic is reporting on an interesting study that was published last week in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The research concerns DNA extracted from a 10,300-year-old tooth found in Alaska.
The research, done by Brian Kemp at Vanderbilt, extracted both mtDNA and Y chromosome DNA from the tooth. Results of the study identified a previously unknown founding mtDNA lineage, and indicated that people first arrived in the Americas circa 15,000 years ago. One other interesting result:
Of the 47 samples that matched the tooth DNA, 4 were from descendants of Chumash Indians living along California's central coast."The distribution of people exhibiting this [genetic] type today are all distributed in the western Americas," Kemp said.
"More or less the individuals are smack down the coast. It's a very neat western distribution."
More specifically:
Those who did lived primarily on the Pacific coast of North and South America, from California to Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America
This distribution is tentative support for the hypothesis of the coastal migration route. Returning to the Chumash:
DNA samples of people living in Japan and northeast Asia show some of the genetic mutations found in the cave-tooth and Chumash samples."I think that's a clue that there could be a genetic connection," Johnson said.
He said the Chumash descendants may have been skilled fishers before they arrived in the Americas.
"Your techniques for exploiting coastal resources are easily [transferable] and something that maybe can allow you to migrate more quickly than people who are hunters and gatherers, who must get used to new environments as they move into uncharted territory," Johnson said.
The National Geographic article is worth a read, and if anybody out there has access to the AJPA I would love a copy of the Kemp article.
Update 1: An alert reader has sent me a copy of Kemp's article (Thanks!). As soon as I have had a chance to read it I will have more to say.
Comments
Ooh this seems like it will be a good paper. I will try and get access thru it, however my off-campus library workaround ain't always the best. I'll email you it if I get it, but if you get it before I... can you send me a copy please?
Kambiz
Posted by: Kambiz Kamrani | February 3, 2007 12:33 AM
Please, can you send me a copy, too? I don't get access to this journal. Thanks.
Posted by: João Azevedo Fernandes | February 9, 2007 10:34 AM