WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 — It seemed settled — extensive genetic studies had confirmed that the ancestors of all living humans emerged from Africa 50,000 years ago and either killed off or outcompeted all other humanlike creatures who settled across much of the world. But two studies published this week strongly disputed this scenario and reignited the vigorous and often acrimonious debate about where modern humans come from.
ONE STUDY, done in Australia, used genetic evidence that suggested “Mungo Man” — a 60,000-year-old skeleton — is genetically unrelated to the Africans believed to have evolved 150,000 or so years ago and later to have settled the world.
Another, published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, analyzed physical features of early human skulls to suggest there must have been interbreeding among the migrating Africans and resident Neanderthals and even Homo erectus species of pre-humans.
“There never was a marauding band of Africans,” University of Michigan anthropologist Milford Wolpoff, who with colleagues published the latest report in Science, said in a telephone interview.
WAS THERE AN AFRICAN ‘EVE’?
Wolpoff said his findings and the Australian findings indicated humans in Europe and Australia evolved gradually from Homo erectus and Neanderthals, with input from Africans, over time. This view contrasted with theories that Homo erectus and Neanderthals were dead-end species.
“It certainly means that the ‘Eve’ theory, the replacement theory, seems to be wrong,” Wolpoff said.
He argued there was no such thing as a separate species of early humans, despite studies of Neanderthal DNA that showed it to be distinct from the DNA of modern living humans.
“Ancient humans shared genes and behaviors across wide regions of the world, and were not rendered extinct by one ‘lucky group’ that later evolved into us,” Wolpoff said.
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"Everything was true. God was an astronaut. Oz really is over the
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ONE STUDY, done in Australia, used genetic evidence that suggested “Mungo Man” — a 60,000-year-old skeleton — is genetically unrelated to the Africans believed to have evolved 150,000 or so years ago and later to have settled the world.
Another, published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, analyzed physical features of early human skulls to suggest there must have been interbreeding among the migrating Africans and resident Neanderthals and even Homo erectus species of pre-humans.
“There never was a marauding band of Africans,” University of Michigan anthropologist Milford Wolpoff, who with colleagues published the latest report in Science, said in a telephone interview.
WAS THERE AN AFRICAN ‘EVE’?
Wolpoff said his findings and the Australian findings indicated humans in Europe and Australia evolved gradually from Homo erectus and Neanderthals, with input from Africans, over time. This view contrasted with theories that Homo erectus and Neanderthals were dead-end species.
“It certainly means that the ‘Eve’ theory, the replacement theory, seems to be wrong,” Wolpoff said.
He argued there was no such thing as a separate species of early humans, despite studies of Neanderthal DNA that showed it to be distinct from the DNA of modern living humans.
“Ancient humans shared genes and behaviors across wide regions of the world, and were not rendered extinct by one ‘lucky group’ that later evolved into us,” Wolpoff said.
Want to learn MORE? http://www.msnbc.com/news/514732.asp
------------------
-Administrator / Owner
"Everything was true. God was an astronaut. Oz really is over the
rainbow. ...and Midian is where the monsters live." -Nightbreed