An international team led by Leeds University in Britain and the University of Porto in Portugal, said that genetic analysis has been used in research for clues about human migration over 60,000 years ago.
"An important question unanswered regarding the dispersal of modern humans around the world refers to the geographic location of the first steps out of Africa.
"A popular model predicts that the early stages of the dispersion is carried out through the Red Sea to southern Arabia, but direct genetic evidence has been thin on the ground," said team leader Dr. Luisa Pereira University of Porto.
In fact, in his research, the team analyzed three of the first non-African maternal lineages. These first branches are associated with the period of time that modern humans successfully for the first left Africa.
Using mitochondrial DNA analysis, which follows the female line of origin, the scientists compared the complete genomes of Arabia and the Middle East with a database of hundreds of samples from Europe. They found evidence of ancient ancestry within Arabia.
Team member Professor Martin Richards of Leeds University said: "The timing and pattern of migration of early modern humans has been a source of much debate and research.
Our new results suggest that Saudi, rather than North Africa and Near East, was the first staging post in the spread of modern humans around the world. "
