7. Massive genome analysis reveals importance of Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula seems to have played an important role in early human migrations out of Africa, scientists have found. The Arabian Peninsula seems to have played an important role in early human migrations out of Africa, scientists have found. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max - 1024GB - Sierra Blue - AT&T SPONSORED BY AT&T LEARN MORE The largest ever study of Arab genomes to date reveals just how key the Arabian Peninsula was to early humans migrating out of Africa. The study looked at the DNA of 6,218 Middle Eastern adults and compared it with the DNA of ancient and modern people from all over the world. The analysis revealed that Middle Eastern groups made significant genetic contributions to European, South Asian and even South American communities, likely because as Islam spread across the world over the past 1,400 years, people of Middle Eastern descent interbred with those populations, the researchers said. What's more, the results indicated that the ancestors of the Arabian groups split from early Africans about 90,000 years ago, which is about the same time as the ancestors of Europeans and South Asians split from early Africans, the researchers found in the October study published in the journal Nature Communications (opens in new tab). This discovery supports the idea that when early humans left Africa, they did so by traveling through Arabia.