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The genetic and fossil records don’t reveal a single point of origin for modern humans, the researchers found.
Experts from the Museum, the Francis Crick Institute and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have teamed up to unravel the different lineages of ancestry in the evolution of our species, homo sapiens.
They argue that no specific point in time can currently be identified when modern human ancestry was confined to a limited place of birth. The known patterns of the first onset of anatomical or behavioral traits that are often used to define H. sapiens correspond to a range of evolving stories.
Their new article, published in Nature, reviews our current understanding of how modern human ancestry across the world can be traced to the distant past, and which ancestors it passes through on our journey through time.
Professor Chris Stringer, co-author and researcher at the Museum, said: “Some of our ancestors will have lived in groups or populations that can be identified in the fossil record, while very little will be known to others.
“Over the next decade, the growing understanding of our complex origins is expected to expand geographic focus to regions previously considered peripheral to our evolution, such as Central and West Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South Asia. South East.
Three key phases of our ancestry are surrounded by major questions, including:
- the global expansion of modern man between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago and the last known contact with archaic groups such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans
- an African origin of modern human diversity around 60,000 to 300,000 years ago
- the complex separation of modern human ancestors from archaic human groups around 300,000 to one million years ago
Francis Crick Institute co-author Pontus Skoglund says: “Contrary to what many believe, neither genetic records nor fossils have so far revealed a definite time and place for the origin of our species.
“ There may not have been a time like this, when the majority of our ancestry was found in a small geographic area and the traits we associate with our species emerged. For now, it would be useful to move away from the idea of a single time and place of origin.
Interdisciplinary analysis of the growing genetic, fossil and archaeological record will undoubtedly reveal many new surprises about the roots of modern human ancestry.
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