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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Peter Muiruri in Nairobi

Kenya’s Turkana people genetically adapted to live in harsh environment, study suggests

Five tall and thin young African men carrying AK-47-type guns walk with cattle in a desert-like landscape
Turkana herders walk with their cattle near Baragoi, Kenya. Fetching water can involve long journeys in a hot terrain, meaning drinking water is always scarce. Photograph: Goran Tomašević/Reuters

A collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region.

Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity and limited vegetation, has been hundreds of years of natural selection, according to a study published in Science.

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