Located in the Indian Ocean, the Great Nicobar Island is home to the little-known tribe of Shompens. Displaying a stark resemblance to African populations with some Mongoloid traits, they still cling to the life of hunter-gatherers. Except occasional visits by researchers and government officials, the enigmatic Shompens, who number just about 200, remain largely immune to the influence of the outside world.

In an attempt to unravel their origins, a team of Indian scientists recently studied their genetic material. It found that the Shompen "exhibit varying levels of genetic relatedness with the Nicobarese, and Austro-Asiatic speakers of mainland India and Southeast Asia', says Vijendra Kumar Kashyap, who led the researchers from the National dna Analysis Centre in Kolkata, Noida's National Institute of Biologicals and Port Blair's Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti.

For the study, the scientists collected blood samples from 33 unrelated Shompens and then extracted and isolated their dna. They specifically looked for mutations in mt dna