Papua New Guinea
Long ago, around 42,000 to 45,000 years ago, people came to Papua New Guinea. They were related to people who left Africa a long time ago and moved to other parts of the world. A study in 2016 found that it was about 50,000 years ago that these people came to a big land called Sahul, which is Australia and New Guinea combined. About 10,000 years ago, the sea level rose and New Guinea became an island. But even before that, the people in Australia and Papua New Guinea became different from each other about 37,000 years ago. Scientists found out that the ancestors of Papuans mixed with another group of people called Denisovans when they were in Asia a long time ago. They share 4% to 7% of their genes with these ancient people.