The tip of a girl’s 40,000-year-old pinky finger found in a cold Siberian cave, paired with faster and cheaper genetic sequencing technology, is helping scientists draw a surprisingly complex new picture of human origins.
The new view is fast supplanting the traditional idea that modern humans triumphantly marched out of Africa about 50,000 years ago, replacing all other types that had gone before.
Instead, the genetic analysis shows, modern humans encountered and bred with at least two groups of ancient humans in relatively recent times: the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia, dying out roughly 30,000 years ago, and a mysterious group known as the Denisovans, who lived in Asia and most likely vanished around the same time.
Their DNA lives on in us even though they are extinct. “In a sense, we are a hybrid species,” Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist who is the research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said in an interview.
Comparing genomes, scientists concluded that today’s humans outside Africa carry an average of 2.5 percent Neanderthal DNA, and that people from parts of Oceania also carry about 5 percent Denisovan DNA. A study published in November found that Southeast Asians carry about 1 percent Denisovan DNA in addition to their Neanderthal genes. It is unclear whether Denisovans and Neanderthals also interbred.
A third group of extinct humans, Homo floresiensis, nicknamed “the hobbits” because they were so small, also walked the earth until about 17,000 years ago. It is not known whether modern humans bred with them because the hot, humid climate of the Indonesian island of Flores, where their remains were found, impairs the preservation of DNA.
But Dr. Reich and his team have determined through the patterns of archaic DNA replications that a small number of half-Neanderthal, half-modern human hybrids walked the earth between 46,000 and 67,000 years ago, he said in an interview. The half-Denisovan, half-modern humans that contributed to our DNA were more recent.
And Peter Parham, an immunologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, has used an analysis of modern and ancient immune-system genetic components — alleles — to figure out that one of the Denisovan-modern couplings most likely took place in what is now southeastern China. He has also found some evidence that a Neanderthal-modern pair mated in west Asia.
The most recent find in China, fossils from merely 11,000 years ago, supports the multiregional theory and deals another blow to the obsolete out-of-africa model.
more evidence for multiregional
Genetics & Genealogy: Is Out-of-Africa Going Out The Door?
http://www.ramsdale.org/dna4.htm
Short Sharp Science: Did early humans evolve in Europe, not Africa?
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/09/did-early-humans-evolve-in-eur.html
Out-of-Africa Theory of ancient human migration being challenged by discovery of 1.8 million-year-old hand axe in Malaysia
http://arkeologis.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/out-of-africa-theory-of-ancient-human-migration-being-challenged/
BBC NEWS | Tools unlock secrets of early man. New research shows early humans were living in Britain around 700,000 years ago, substantially earlier than had previously been thought
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4526264.stm
Reuters: Bones show humans in Europe 1.2 mln years ago
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/26/us-humans-fossil-spain-idUSL2692730020080326
The Independent: A skull that rewrites the history of man
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-skull-that-rewrites-the-history-of-man-1783861.html
New Scientist: Were our earliest hominid ancestors European?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17225-were-our-earliest-hominid-ancestors-european.html?DCMP=OTC-rss
New Scientist: Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18093-chinese-challenge-to-out-of-africa-theory.html
China's earliest human puts 'out of Africa' theory to test
http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/9186.aspx
Georgian skeletons challenge 'out of Africa' theory
http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/43912-georgian-skeletons-challenge-out-of-africa-theory
Chinese Scientists Launch New Challenge to ‘Out of Africa’ Theory : Multiregional bones discovered
http://www.arthurkemp.com/?p=443
10,000-year-old Chinese Fossil Poses Challenge to 'Out of Africa' Theory
http://heritage-key.com/blogs/michael-kan/110000-year-old-chinese-fossil-poses-challenge-out-africa-theory
BBC News | SCI/TECH | Fossil challenge to Africa theory Australian Fossil challenge to Africa theory
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1108413.stm
Early Human Remains Challenge 'Out of Africa' Theory
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/201503/early_human_remains_challenge_out_of.html
Scientists Challenge Evolution Theory DNA Shows Modern Humans Not Just From Africa, Say Scientists
http://www.lauralee.com/news/evolutionchallenged.htm
Mungo Man Mungo man disproves out of Africa
http://www.donsmaps.com/mungo.html
Dmanisi Man and the Out of Africa fairytale
http://rokus01.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/dmanisi-man-and-the-out-of-africa-fairytale/
Not Out of Africa | Human Evolution | DISCOVER Magazine Not out of Africa says scientist
http://discovermagazine.com/2002/aug/featafrica
Anthropologists Dispute Latest ‘Out of Africa’ Claims
http://anthropology.net/2007/07/21/anthropologists-dispute-latest-out-of-africa-claims/
Scientists forced to re-write evolution of modern man
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1341973/Did-humans-come-Middle-East-Africa-Scientists-forced-write-evolution-modern-man.html
Did first humans come out of Middle East and not Africa?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8227204/Did-the-first-humans-come-out-of-Middle-East.html
The History of Man is being rewritten in Georgia
http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/breve_contenu.php?id=129
A skull that rewrites the history of man - Science, News
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-skull-that-rewrites-the-history-of-man-1783861.html
Did Early Man Take His First Steps In Asia?
http://meta-religion.com/Archaeology/Asia/Other/first_step_asia.htm
Chinese skull discovery may cause human origins rethink
http://en.rian.ru/science/20080124/97644883.html
Blacks, Whites and Asians have different ancestors – and did not come from Africa, claims scientist
http://www.articlesafari.com/2010/09/whites-asians-did-not-come-from-africa/
A critique of the African-origin theory
http://www.articlesafari.com/2010/09/critique-of-the-african-origin-theory/
Humans Not As Genetically Identical As We Thought
http://www.articlesafari.com/2010/09/humans-not-genetically-identical/
New Race/Species of Human Discovered
http://www.articlesafari.com/2010/12/new-race-species-of-human-discovered116/
Studies contradict view that race doesn’t exist
http://www.articlesafari.com/2010/12/different-races/
400,000 year-old teeth may 'change picture of evolution'
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/4497784/Ancient-teeth-find-may-change-picture-of-evolution
Ancient skeletons discovered in Georgia threaten to overturn the theory of human evolution
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1212060/Ancient-skeletons-discovered-Georgia-threaten-overturn-theory-human-evolution.html
Out of Asia: New Origin Proposed for Humans, Monkeys, Apes
http://www.livescience.com/8843-asia-origin-proposed-humans-monkeys-apes.html
"Out of Africa" View of Early Human Origins Disputed
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/07/river-out-of-ed.html
Study stirs up debate over human origins - Technology & science
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19832535/ns/technology_and_science-science/