Newsademic British English edition 260

part o f South America.
The researchers managed to get, 
or extract, DNA from the skull of 
a man who died 4,500 years ago. 
He lived in southern Ethiopia. The 
m an’s body had been buried inside 
a cave. The researchers called the 
man ‘M ota’, after the name o f the 
cave. DNA has been extracted from 
ancient humans before. Yet they
have all been found in cooler parts 
o f the world. Until now no ancient 
DNA had been found in Africa. The 
cool temperatures in the cave had 
helped to preserve it.
Using M ota’s DNA, the research­
ers compared it with DNA from lo­
cal people. M ost o f it was similar. 
This showed that they were related. 
However, about 25% o f their ances­
try was very different to M ota’s. The 
genes o f this different ancestry, the 
researchers say, come from farmers 
who lived in the Middle East and 
Turkey. These ‘farm ing’ genes must 
therefore have arrived in Ethiopia 
after Mota died.
Then, the researchers compared 
M ota’s DNA with the DNA from 
other people from different parts of 
Africa. M ost people in East Africa 
have the 25% ‘farming ancestry’. 
Moving farther and farther towards 
the west and south, this percentage 
decreases. Yet it still exists.
The researchers say that their 
work proves that this was a big hu­
man migration into Africa. Many 
people from the Middle East must 
have moved back into Africa around
3,000 years ago. The researchers 
say what caused them to do this is a 
mystery. □
Newsademic.com
Editor: Rebecca Watson
Acknowledgem ents:
News story photographs by gettyimages
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