Out Of Africa Hypothesis Essay

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The Recent African Origins (Out of Africa) Hypothesis states that, modern humans evolved in Africa and then spread around the world. In other words, all of us can trace our origins back to Africa. On the other hand, we have the Multiregional hypothesis, stating that modern human evolved in many locations around the world from the species Homo erectus. However, this hypothesis and its followers have their back against the wall, due to the three very different strains of evidence supporting the Out of Africa hypothesis (all coming from the “We Are All Africans” article). The first strain of evidence comes from mtDNA, otherwise known as mitochondrial DNA. By analyzing mtDNA, genetic analysists are able to trace ancestry because it is only inherited …show more content…

The next bit of evidence comes from Tim White and F. lark Howell. In the June of 2003, they publicized the finding of three fossilized human skulls in the Herto Bouri area of Ethiopia. With the use of relative and chronometric dating, they dated these fossils back to 154,000 and 160,000 years ago. After recovering the rest of the remains and conducting thorough observations of cranial and postcranial features they concluded that the Herto specimens to be the earliest modern Homo sapiens. Before the Herto skulls were found, the Omo Kibish was known as the oldest dated fossils with ties to Africa. However, with better technology and more reliabile dating methods, the Omo Kibish have been re-dated to about 125,000 years ago. Therefore, making the Herto skulls the oldest African fossils to date, further supporting the Out of Africa Hypothesis. The last piece of evidence comes from Svante and the genetic extraction of mtDNA from the original Neanderthal specimen. The mtDNA from the Neandertal specimen was compared with mtDNA from more than 2,000 diverse people living all over the

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