Hepatitis B virus sheds light on ancient human population movements into Australia

EurekAlert! ^ | March 17, 2019 | University of Melbourne

[SunkenCiv]

Australian researchers have used current hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome sequences to deduce ancient human population movements into Australia, adding weight to the theory that the mainland Aboriginal population separated from other early humans at least 59 thousand years ago and possibly entered the country near the Tiwi Islands... Chronic HBV infection is endemic in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and is an important cause of morbidity and mortality due to liver disease and liver cancer.

As part of caring for patients with hepatitis B infections in the CHARM study, the research team collected HBV samples from people living in over 30 communities across the NT and found HBV isolated from Aboriginal Australians is a unique strain not found anywhere else in the world, known as HBV/C4. In the same way that human genome sequences are used to trace ancient human migration, the researchers predicted they could use modern day viral genomes to infer the movement of the people that have carried these viruses over many generations...

The researchers found that the precursor of the modern HBV/C4 virus entered Australia over 51 thousand years ago, and then separated into two groups; one centred in the northwest region, and a second in the central/eastern region of the NT. Strikingly, the two groups share a similar geographical distribution to the two main divisions of Aboriginal Australian languages spoken in Australia today.

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologists from The Australian National University (ANU) have unearthed fragments from the edge of the world's oldest-known axe, found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Lead archeologist Professor Sue O'Connor said the axe dates back between 46,000 and 49,000 years, around the time people first arrived on the continent.

"This is the earliest evidence of hafted axes in the world. Nowhere else in the world do you get axes at this date," said Professor O'Connor from the ANU School of Culture, History and Language.

"In Japan such axes appear about 35,000 years ago. But in most countries in the world they arrive with agriculture after 10,000 years ago."

Professor O'Connor said this discovery showed early Aboriginal technology was not as simple as has been previously suggested. [Archaeologists find world's oldest axe in Australia | EurekAlert! | Australian National University | 10-May-2016]

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

sidebar:

Meet the hominin species that gave us genital herpes
1-Oct-2017
University of Cambridge
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/uoc-mth092717.php

[SteveH]

herpes 2 origin bump

[blam]

"The researchers found that the precursor of the modern HBV/C4 virus entered Australia over 51 thousand years ago..."

How long before evidence is found of humans in Australia before they even left Africa?

[Fred Nerks]

...How long before evidence is found of humans in Australia before they even left Africa?

Can't wait, that'll tip over a few academic applecarts.

[SunkenCiv]

LOL! The dates on those (known) axes are a few thousand years younger than the estimate for the hep B, but estimating the time for the entry of the hep B is bound to be less of a hard date than artifact dating.

• First Australians did not boost fire activity [12/08/2010]

[gleeaikin]

I want to know when they are going to test the DNA of the Kow Swamp remains whose skull looks nothing like a homo sapien sapien.

[SunkenCiv]

• Kow Swamp skeletons