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The Multiregional Hypothesis argues that our earliest hominid ancestors radiated out from Africa and Homo sapiens evolved from several different groups of Homo erectus in several places throughout the world.
· The main proponent of the multi-regional hypothesis is Milford Wolpoff. But, growing genetic and archaeological evidence seems to suggest that of all the different evolutionary pathways, the Multiregional Hypothesis is looking less and less likely. There actually are more than three theories, but there are three main strains of the argument about how first Homo erectus and then Homo sapiens left Africa. |
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The replacement model of Christopher Stringer and Peter Andrews proposes that modern humans evolved from archaic humans 200,000-150,000 years ago only in Africa and then some of them migrated into the rest of the Old World replacing all of the Neandertals and other late archaic humans beginning around 60,000-40,000 years ago. If this interpretation of the fossil record is correct, all people today share a relatively modern African ancestry. All other lines of humans that had descended from Homo erectus presumably became extinct. From this view, the regional anatomical differences that we see among humans today are recent developments--evolving mostly in the last 40,000 years. This hypothesis is also referred to as the "out of Africa", "Noah's ark" and "African replacement" model.
· The Out-of-Africa theory was bolstered in the early 1990s by research on mitochondrial DNA studies by Allan Wilson and Rebecca Cann which suggest that all humans ultimately descended from one female: the Mitochondrial Eve. |
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| (Modern Humans evolve in Africa then spread to Asia & Europe. Gene flow w/ neandertals. |
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| Proposes that the first modern humans did evolve in Africa, but when they migrated into other regions they did not simply replace existing human populations. Rather, they interbred to a limited degree with late archaic humans resulting in hybrid populations. In Europe, for instance, the first modern humans appear in the archaeological record rather suddenly around 40,000 years ago. The abruptness of the appearance of these Cro-Magnon people could be explained by their migrating into the region from Africa via Southwest Asia. They apparently shared Europe with Neandertals for another 12,000 years. During this long time period, it is argued that interbreeding occurred and that the partially hybridized predominantly Cro-Magnon population ultimately became modern Europeans. In 2003, a discovery was made in a Romanian cave named Peştera cu Oase that supports this hypothesis. It was a partial skeleton of a 15-16 year old male Homo sapiens who lived about 30,000 years ago or a bit earlier. He had a mix of old and new anatomical features. The skull had characteristics of both modern and archaic humans. This could be explained as the result of interbreeding with Neandertals according to Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis. Alan Templeton, also of Washington University, reported that a computer-based analysis of 10 different human DNA sequences indicates that there has been interbreeding between people living in Asia, Europe, and Africa for at least 600,000 years. This is consistent with the hypothesis that humans expanded again and again out of Africa and that these emigrants interbred with existing populations in Asia and Europe. It is also possible that migrations were not only in one direction--people could have migrated into Africa as well. If interbreeding occurred, it may have been a rare event. This is supported by the fact that most skeletons of Neandertals and Cro-Magnon people do not show hybrid characteristics. |
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| The last part of the Paleolithic stage of development in which Cro-Magnon and other late ice age modern Homo sapiens developed a number of sophisticated stone tool making traditions including the Magdalenian. This was the height of technical sophistication during the Old Stone Age. The Upper Paleolithic in Europe began about 40,000 years ago and ended around 10,000 years ago. Technological developments leading to the Upper Paleolithic may have begun by at least 75,000 years ago in Africa. |
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| the part of the Paleolithic stage of development in which the Mousterian tool tradition of the Neandertals and early modern humans was used. The Middle Paleolithic began sometime between 250,000 and 100,000 years ago and continued until at least 28,000 years ago. |
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| the earliest and longest part of the Paleolithicstage of development. The Lower Paleolithic began with the Oldowan Tool Tradition of Homo habilis and continued with the Acheulian Tradition of Homo erectus and early archaic humans. The Lower Paleolithic began about 2.5-2.4 million years ago and continued until after 100,000 years ago. Lower Paleolithic tool making was the height of technology for most of the time that we have been human. |
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Mitochondrial Eve refers to the most recent common matrilineal ancestor from whom all living humans are descended. Passed down from mother to offspring, all mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in every living person is directly descended from hers. Mitochondrial Eve is the female counterpart of Y-chromosomal Adam, the patrilineal most recent common ancestor, although they lived thousands of years apart.
· Mitochondrial Eve is generally estimated to have lived around 200,000 years ago, most likely in East Africa, when Homo sapiens sapiens ("anatomically modern humans") were developing as a population distinct from other human sub-species.
· Mitochondrial Eve lived much earlier than the out of Africa migration that is thought to have occurred between 95,000 to 45,000 BP. The dating for 'Eve' was a blow to the multiregional hypothesis, and a boost to the hypothesis that modern humans originated relatively recently in Africa and spread from there, replacing more "archaic" human populations such as Neanderthals. |
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