{
  "abstract": "The Congo rainforest was the heartland of the Bantu Expansion, yet its demographic history remains partially understood. We inferred past population dynamics using genomes from 960 sub-Saharan Africans, including four newly sequenced ancient individuals from Iroungou cave and 176 present-day individuals from Gabon. Bantu-speaking populations began differentiating ~4,000 years ago, preceding explosive population growth by a millennium. Distinct southward dispersals contributed to the ancestry of Bantu speakers in Gabon and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, with the ~700-year-old Iroungou individuals providing the closest genetic proxies for the latter. Both Bantu speakers and hunter-gatherers from the Congo rainforest experienced a major demographic crisis ~1,500 years ago, coinciding with an archaeological hiatus. These findings illuminate early Bantu dispersals and the subsequent, unexplained collapse of rainforest populations.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Institut Pasteur, Paris, France"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 24,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "O. Parasayan"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Roux"
    },
    {
      "name": "F. Mendisco"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Prado-Martinez"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Liu"
    },
    {
      "name": "G. Laval"
    },
    {
      "name": "C. Harmant"
    },
    {
      "name": "M.-H. Pemonge"
    },
    {
      "name": "C. Pomilla"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Young"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Hurles"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Sandhu"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Massilani"
    },
    {
      "name": "B. Chak"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. B. Barreiro"
    },
    {
      "name": "J.-M. Hombert"
    },
    {
      "name": "P. Mouguiama-Daouda"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Kacki"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Grollemund"
    },
    {
      "name": "M.-F. Deguilloux"
    },
    {
      "name": "G. de Saulieu"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Oslisly"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Quintana-Murci"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "E. Patin"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8dc5bxx898t69.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.27.762084",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.27.762084v1.full",
  "id": "8dc5bxx898t69",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.27.762084v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "genomics"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1311|Forensic and Genetic Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7224111352",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.27.762084v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-27",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8dc5bxx898t69.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:30:16Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.27.762084",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.27.762084v2"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:genomics",
      "subfield": "genetics-genomics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A 4,000-year genomic history of Bantu speakers from the Congo rainforest",
  "title_text": "A 4,000-year genomic history of Bantu speakers from the Congo rainforest",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T00:20:45Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8dc5bxx898t69",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}