First Australians may have been migrants rather than drifters

Indirect estimates based on carbon dating point to intentional settlement by a large population.

At least 1,000 Aboriginal founders first arrived in Australia some 50,000 years ago, a reconstruction indicates — numbers that could be evidence of an intentional migration rather than the accidental stranding of a few individuals at a time. The study also finds that the population was devastated during the latest Ice Age, but later rebounded.

The prehistoric settlement of Australia has long been considered a simple story: a founding group of 150 people or fewer made it to the Australian mainland 50 millennia ago and grew to no more than 1.2 million by the time European settlers arrived in 1788. Debate focused on whether the founding population grew immediately after colonization or boomed later, in the past 5,000 years.

But a paper published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B uses radiocarbon dating to estimate prehistoric populations, and reveals a more complex plot. [...] nature.com

Actualización 29-04-13. Australia pudo ser deliberadamente colonizada, según sugiere una nueva investigación
Hace unos 50.000 años los colonos humanos aborígenes llegaron al continente, pero cuántas personas constituían la población colonizadora de Australia es desconocida. El nuevo estudio, publicado el pasado martes (23 de abril) en la revista Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indica que alrededor de 1.000 a 3.000 individuos llegaron originalmente a las costas de Australia...