Peabody writes:
Would the ancestral South Indian population be genetically Australoid, per this study?
Exactly. Skulls from 25-40,000 YBP in the north of India look like Aborigines. The basic Indian type is a Veddoid or even a Negrito like the Andaman Islands. India was Australoid until 8,000 YBP when it started transitioning towards Caucasoids. I am not sure where these Caucasoids came from, but they may be the ancestors of the Dravidians, who may have come from Western Iran. This group may have been the Elamites. The Elamites may have moved out of Western Iran and moved to India to become the Dravidians starting 8,000 YBP.
The Aborigines of Australia seem to be composed of two main groups. First the Murrayans arrived 15-20,000 YBP, possibly from the north. These may have been a proto-Ainuid group similar to the proto-Jomon Ainuids living in Thailand 16,000 YBP. Later another group moved in called Carpinterians. They seem to have come from Southern India. Both the Murrayans and Carpinterians had to arrive by boats.
The mixture of Murrayans and Carpinterians produced the modern Aborigines. Prior to 17,000 YBP, Aborigines may have looked quite different. So the fact that some South Indians look like Aborigines is because they were ancestral to Aborigines, not the other way around.
