Extra Credit Assignment: Early Human Migrations The fossil and genomic record te
ID: 273620 • Letter: E
Question
Extra Credit Assignment: Early Human Migrations
The fossil and genomic record tell us that our species originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago (These numbers might now go back further). The first 100,000 years were spent in Africa and soon after our species began to expand into different world regions. Your task will be to explore the complex fossil and genetic history of modern humans as they left Africa for the first time. You can choose one of the following world regions: The Americas (you will be including both North and South), Australia, East Asia, Europe, Pacific Islands.
You will be graded on the following:
All world regions have complicated population histories that are the result of the fact that they are the result of a number of populations that have come together to form the current population. What insight do genomic studies of ancient fossils and modern populations give us in reference to the number of founding populations of your chosen world region?
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Explanation / Answer
Most people are now familiar with the traditional "Out of Africa" model: modern humans evolved in Africa and then dispersed across Asia and reached Australia in a single wave about 60,000 years ago. However, technological advances in DNA analysis and other fossil identification techniques, as well as an emphasis on multidisciplinary research, are revising this story. Recent discoveries show that humans left Africa multiple times prior to 60,000 years ago, and that they interbred with other hominins in many locations across Eurasia. A review of recent research on dispersals by early modern humans from Africa to Asia by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Hawai'i at Manoa confirms that the traditional view of a single dispersal of anatomically modern humans out of Africa around 60,000 years ago can no longer be seen as the full story. The analysis, published in the journal Science, reviews the plethora of new discoveries being reported from Asia over the past decade, which were made possible by technological advances and interdisciplinary collaborations, and shows that Homo sapiens reached distant parts of the Asian continent, as well as Near Oceania, much earlier than previously thought. Additionally, evidence that modern humans interbred with other hominins already present in Asia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, complicates the evolutionary history of our species.
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