According to what has been discovered so far, the first human populations arose in the heart of Africa and from there they spread to other areas, it would be expected that those who today inhabit the north of the continent were the direct descendants of those first colonizers. However, a study published in the journal PLos Genetics indicates that, before finally settling north of the Sahara, the ancestors of North Africans took a "little tour" around the rest of the world.
Thanks to the analysis of 800,000 genetic markers, the study shows how the ancestors of the inhabitants of North Africa belong to a subgroup that left the continent to conquer the rest of the world and return, some 13,000 years later, to their region of origin. In addition, researchers have found that these populations share markers with inhabitants of the Middle East, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.
This complex genetic structure is explained by the strategic position of North Africa, since it is located between the rest of the continent, Europe and the Middle East. In addition, it is an area geographically isolated by the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara desert. As a consequence, throughout history a mixture of migratory events and episodes of isolation of their populations have taken place that offers an exciting field of study for human geneticists.
