Proto-Australoid
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The Proto-Australoids were a race of Hunter-Gatherers. They are known to have spoken the Mundari Language[[Citing sources citation needed]], and their descendants comprise communities scattered across South- and Austral-Asia. The largest population of this race can be found in India where they numbered close to 40 million in 1985[[Citing sources citation needed]]. They also have sizable minorities in Australia, where they are known as Aborigines, and in Sri Lanka as the Vaddas (Veddoids). Recent anthropological evidence indicates that they may be descended from a very early wave of 'Out Of Africa' migrations via the red sea shoreline and southern (Hadramawti) Yemen[[Citing sources citation needed]]. Much of the evidence of such migrations is believed to be buried undersea on the narrow continental shelf around the southern Arabian and southern Makran coasts[[Citing sources citation needed]].
The proto Australoids (Austrics in Indian literature) formed the first stable small scale agricultural communities in South/South East Asia, in contrast to the predominantly beachcombing negrito cultures that preceded them. Proto Australoids are morphologically characterised by moderate to high dolichocephaly (long headed), dark brownish black skin color, wavy hair which is dark brown or black (occasionally with streaks of reddish or yellowish hair), and a mesorrhine nose[[Citing sources citation needed]]. Root vegetables and small arboreal mammals constituted an important part of their diet. They are of medium build. Those living at low elevations are usually short statured. Around 65% of the general Indian population has some amount of Australoid admixture[[Citing sources citation needed]]. Many Australoids in Southern/Central India have adapted to dravidian languages. Some amount of Australoid admixture is also seen among a few communities in South East Asia, including the Moken of Burma and the people of Enggano in the Mentawai islands off Sumatra. West Asian remnants of proto-Australoids are proposed, they include the dark skinned Mahri of Yemen. For most part, evidence of proto-Australoids in the Middle East has been obliterated by later invasions, as well as the drowning of the shallow South Arabian and Makran coastlines after the most recent ice age melt.
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