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Abstract
Spatial Simulations of Prehistoric Human Migrations and Genetic Diversity
Track: Ecology, Archaeology, and Conservation
Author(s): Nicolas Ray, Mathias Currat, Laurent Excoffier
This paper proposes a new methodology to investigate past human migrations at the global scale over the time frame of modern human expansion (~100 ky), by coupling environment-driven migration simulations with stochastic genetic processes. The simulations take place in a reconstructed world within a cellular automaton framework. Links to a grid-based GIS allows manipulation of past vegetation, topography, coastlines, and river network. The simulation account for dynamic environments in allowing sea level and vegetation to change over time. The author believes these techniques have tremendous potentialities for the analysis of past demographic and genetic processes.
Nicolas Ray
University of Geneva
Department of Anthropology
Genetics and Biometry Lab
Case Postale 511
Geneva 24 1211
Switzerland
Phone: +41 22 7026940
Fax: +41 22 3000351
E-mail: nicolas.ray@anthro.unige.ch
Mathias Currat
University of Geneva
Department of Anthropology
Case Postale 511
Geneva 24 1211
Switzerland
Phone: +41 22 7026965
Fax: +41 22 3000351
E-mail: mathias.currat@anthro.unige.ch
Laurent Excoffier
University of Bern
Zoological Institute
Baltzerstrasse 6
Bern 3012
Switzerland
Phone: +41 31 6313031
Fax: +41 32 6314888
E-mail: laurent.excoffier@zoo.unibe.ch