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Genome analysis reveals genetic diversity of Indigenous Australians

Before colonisation, Australia was made up of at least 200 distinct nations. Now a genome analysis has revealed that modern Indigenous Australians retain high levels of genetic diversity, far more than people of European or Asian ancestry

By James Woodford

13 December 2023

Indigenous Australians have high levels of genetic diversity

Joshua Prieto/SOPA Images/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News

There is no such thing as one Indigenous Australian people but rather a continent of extraordinarily genetically-diverse, separate communities with greater genetic variability than between people of European or Asian ancestry. That is the conclusion of two analyses that make up the most detailed survey ever of Indigenous Australian genomes.

The research also pushes back the date of genetic separation between people in Papua New Guinea and those in…

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