title: The Andaman Islanders in a regional genetic context: reexamining the evidence for an early peopling of the archipelago from South Asia.
abstract: The indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands were considered by many early anthropologists to be pristine examples of a "negrito" substrate of humanity that existed throughout Southeast Asia. Despite over 150 years of research and study, questions over the extent of shared ancestry between Andaman Islanders and other small-bodied, gracile, dark-skinned populations throughout the region are still unresolved. This shared phenotype could be a product of shared history, evolutionary convergence, or a mixture of both. Recent population genetic studies have tended to emphasize long-term physical isolation of the Andaman Islanders and an affinity to ancestral populations of South Asia. We reexamine the genetic evidence from genome-wide autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data for a shared history between the tribes of Little Andaman (Onge) and Great Andaman, and between these two groups and the rest of South and Southeast Asia (both negrito and non-negrito groups).
authors.affiliation: Estonian Biocenter, Riia 23b, Tartu, 51010, Estonia.
authors.forename: Gyaneshwer
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chaubey
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Endicott
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D001210:Asia, Southeastern / Q000208:ethnology; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial