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Out of Africa

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Waves of human migration out of Africa and back into the continent, as well as the locations of major ancient human remains and archeological sites.

The Out of Africa theory says that modern humans first appeared in Africa, then migrated out of Africa to other parts of the world.

Since the 1980s this theory has been supported by a study of present-day mitochondrial DNA, and other sequence analysis. There is also evidence based on the physical anthropology of archaic fossil remains. The idea is very well supported.[1][2][3][4][5]

There are differing theories on whether there was a single exodus or several. A growing number of researchers also suspect that "long-neglected North Africa" was the original home of the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent.[6][7][8]

Timeline

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Appearance of modern humans

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Genetic studies and fossil evidence show that archaic Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans solely in Africa between 200,000[9][10] and 60,000[11] years ago.

Members of one branch of Homo sapiens left Africa at some point between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago. Over time these humans replaced earlier populations of the genus Homo, such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus.[12]

Migrations out of Africa

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By about 90,000 years ago early humans had moved into Eurasia. Earlier species of humans like the Neanderthals had already been living in this area for a long time (at least 500,000 years in western Europe).

By about 42,000 to 44,000 years ago Homo sapiens had reached western Europe, including Britain.[13] In Europe and western Asia, Homo sapiens replaced the Neanderthals by about 35,000 years ago. (Scientists do not know the details of how this occurred.) At roughly the same time, Homo sapiens arrived in Australia. Their arrival in the Americas was much later, about 15,000 years ago.[14] All these earlier groups of modern man were hunter-gatherers.

First successful out of Africa migration

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The date of the earliest successful "out of Africa" migration (the earliest migrants with living descendants) has generally been placed at 60,000 years ago based on genetics, but migration out of the continent may have taken place as early as 125,000 years ago according to Arabian archaeological finds of tools in the region.[15][16]

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References

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  1. ↑ Liu H.; et al. (2006). "A geographically explicit genetic model of worldwide human-settlement history". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 79 (2): 230–7. Bibcode:2006AmJHG..79..230L. doi:10.1086/505436. PMC 1559480. PMID 16826514. Currently available genetic and archaeological evidence is supportive of a recent single origin of modern humans in East Africa. However, this is where the consensus on human settlement history ends, and considerable uncertainty clouds any more detailed aspect of human colonization history.
  2. ↑ "This week in Science: Out of Africa revisited". Science. 308 (5724): 921. 2005-05-13. doi:10.1126/science.308.5724.921g. S2CID 220100436.
  3. ↑ Stringer C. (2003). "Human evolution: out of Ethiopia". Nature. 423 (6941): 692–3, 695. Bibcode:2003Natur.423..692S. doi:10.1038/423692a. PMID 12802315. S2CID 26693109.
  4. ↑ Johanson D. "Origins of modern humans: multiregional or out of Africa?". ActionBioscience. American Institute of Biological Sciences. Archived from the original on 2010-11-22.
  5. ↑ "Modern Humans – Single Origin (Out of Africa) vs Multiregional".
  6. ↑ Balter M (2011). "Was North Africa the launch pad for modern human migrations?". Science. 331 (6013): 20–3. Bibcode:2011Sci...331...20B. doi:10.1126/science.331.6013.20. PMID 21212332.
  7. ↑ Cruciani F.; Trombetta; Massaia; Destro-Bisol; Sellitto; Scozzari; et al. (2011). "A revised root for the human Y chromosomal phylogenetic tree: the origin of patrilineal diversity in Africa". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 88 (6): 814–8. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.05.002. PMC 3113241. PMID 21601174.
  8. ↑ Smith T.M.; et al. (2007). "Earliest evidence of modern human life history in North African early Homo sapiens". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104 (15): 6128–33. Bibcode:2007PNAS..104.6128S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0700747104. PMC 1828706. PMID 17372199.
  9. ↑ Human ancestors hall: Homo Sapiens Archived 2007-10-15 at the Wayback Machine – URL retrieved October 13, 2006
  10. ↑ Alemseged Z; Coppens Y. & Geraads D. (2002). "Hominid cranium from Omo: description and taxonomy of Omo-323-1976-896". Am J Phys Anthropol. 117 (2): 103–12. doi:10.1002/ajpa.10032. PMID 11815945.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ Reid G.B.R. & Hetherington R. (2010). The climate connection: climate change and modern human evolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-521-14723-1.
  12. ↑ Meredith M. (2011). Born in Africa: the quest for the origins of human life. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-663-1.
  13. ↑ Amos, Jonathan 2011. BBC Science News
  14. ↑ "Fossil feces is earliest evidence of North American humans".
  15. ↑ Armitage S.J.; et al. (2011). "The southern route "out of Africa": evidence for an early expansion of modern humans into Arabia". Science. 331 (6016): 453–6. Bibcode:2011Sci...331..453A. doi:10.1126/science.1199113. PMID 21273486. S2CID 20296624.
  16. ↑ Jones S; Martin R. & Pilbeam D. 1994. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
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