June
18
/ 2019
The size of the first population of people needed to arrive, survive, and thrive in what is now Australia is revealed in two studies published on June 17. It took more than 1,000 people to form a viable population. But this was no accidental migration, as our work shows the first arrivals must have been planned. Our data suggest the ancestors of the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Melanesian peoples first made it to Australia as part of an organized, technologically advanced migration to start a new life. Changing coastlines The continent of Australia that the first arrivals encountered wasn’t what we know as Australia today. Instead, New Guinea, mainland Australia, and Tasmania were joined and formed a mega-continent referred
