VARANASI, Dec. 2 -- Dr Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Bhatnagar Fellow of CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, delivered a lecture as part of the special lecture series organised by the department of zoology of Banaras Hindu University on Monday. The lecture was specially organised for the students of archaeozoology multidisciplinary course, with emphasis on the inter-relationships of archaeology, zoology and genomics. Undergraduate, postgraduate students and professors participated enthusiastically in the programme. Thangaraj revealed that on the basis of DNA analysis, the ancestors of the Onge community of the Andamans, had reached the Indian subcontinent from Africa through the Southern Route about 65,000 years ago. He explained that this migration is an important chapter in human history, when Homo sapiens left the African continent and travelled to the coastal areas of Asia, the origin of modern non-African populations. The Onge tribe, one of the Negrito communities of the Andaman Islands, is a living testimony of this initial wave. Thangaraj termed the complex genomic diversity of the Indian subcontinent as 'a living history book' and called upon young researchers to contribute in this field. As part of the lecture, Thangaraj also explained in detail the DNA analysis of Roopkund Lake (in Ajnala, Punjab), also known as "Skeleton Lake" or "Mystery Lake". This small glacial lake, located at an altitude of 5,020 meters in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, is filled with hundreds of human skeletons, which has puzzled scientists for decades. His team's recent genomic study has revealed that these skeletons did not die together, but belong to at least three separate groups, which arrived there about 1,000 years apart. First group: 7th-9th century, of South Asian (Indian) origin. They died all at once, probably from a severe hailstorm, as many of the skulls bore deep, circular impact marks that only large ice balls could produce. The second group: 17th-20th century, surprisingly of Eastern Mediterranean origin (around the Greek island of Crete). The third group: consisted of a single South-East Asian person. The programme was conducted by Gyan Lab researcher Debshruti Das and professor Dnyaneshwar Choubey of department of zoology, BHU. htc...