People voyaged to Australia by boat more than 50,000 years ago
May 21, 2018 by David Stacey, University of Western Australia
Researchers working to solve the mystery of how people first reached Australia have combined sophisticated deep sea mapping, voyage simulation techniques and genetic information to show that arrival was made by sizeable groups of people deliberately voyaging between islands.
Using cutting-edge modelling, similar to techniques used to search for the wreckage of missing Malaysian Airlines plane MH370, the research team, including Professor Peter Veth from The University of Western Australia, researchers from James Cook University, the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA and CSIRO, with the Centre for Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), simulated hundreds of possible voyaging routes to track likely routes of vessels leaving three sites on the islands of Timor and Roti. They took many factors into account, including winds, ocean currents and paddling.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-people-voyaged-australia-boat-years.html#jCp
