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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / April 2007Article: Chinese discovery casts doubt on 'Out of Africa' theory - study
Chinese discovery casts doubt on 'Out of Africa' theory: study The ancient remains of an early modern human found in Beijing suggests the "Out of Africa" theory of the dispersal of humans may be more complex than first thought, a study released Monday said. The fossilized remains date to 38,000 to 42,000 years ago, making it the oldest modern human skeleton from eastern Eurasia, and one of the oldest modern humans from the region, the authors of the paper said. The specimen is basically a modern human, but with a few archaic characteristics in the teeth and hand bone. The discovery casts further doubt on the longstanding "Out of Africa" theory which holds that when modern Homo sapiens spread eastwards from sub-Saharan Africa to Eurasia about 65,000 to 25,000 years ago, they simply replaced the native late archaic humans, said anthropologist Erik Trinkaus. "The evidence has been steadily growing for some time with respect to western Eurasia to show that these modern humans interbred with local archaic humans as they spread," said Trinkaus. "We haven't had good fossil data from eastern Eurasia to indicate whether the same thing was happening there. But this fossil, which is the first from China to be securely dated to this time period, proves that this interbreeding went on there too." The fossils were recovered from the Tianyuan Cave, Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, China in 2003. Researchers say it should yield further clues about the transition from archaic to modern humans in eastern Eurasia. "The discovery promises to provide relevant paleontological data for our understanding of the emergence of modern humans in eastern Asia," added Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was co-authored by Trinkaus and Hong Shang, a colleague in the same department at Washington University and a scholar at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. © 2007 AFP http://www.physorg.com/news94753229.html Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek On Apr 2, 6:56 pm, "Robert Karl Stonjek" <ston...@ozemail.com.au> wrote: > Chinese discovery casts doubt on 'Out of Africa' theory: study > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was co-authored by Trinkaus and Hong Shang, a colleague in the same department at Washington University and a scholar at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thanx Robert. I've posted here a few times suggesting that East Asians have Homo Erectus DNA. For similar reasons, Europeans have Neanderthal DNA. Not that hominids did not also come out of Africa, but as you say, the evolution was a lot more complex than previously thot. Chinese discovery casts doubt on 'Out of Africa' theory: study The ancient remains of an early modern human found in Beijing suggests the "Out of Africa" theory of the dispersal of humans may be more complex than first thought, a study released Monday said. The fossilized remains date to 38,000 to 42,000 years ago, making it the oldest modern human skeleton from eastern Eurasia, and one of the oldest modern humans from the region, the authors of the paper said. The specimen is basically a modern human, but with a few archaic characteristics in the teeth and hand bone. The discovery casts further doubt on the longstanding "Out of Africa" theory which holds that when modern Homo sapiens spread eastwards from sub-Saharan Africa to Eurasia about 65,000 to 25,000 years ago, they simply replaced the native late archaic humans, said anthropologist Erik Trinkaus. "The evidence has been steadily growing for some time with respect to western Eurasia to show that these modern humans interbred with local archaic humans as they spread," said Trinkaus. "We haven't had good fossil data from eastern Eurasia to indicate whether the same thing was happening there. But this fossil, which is the first from China to be securely dated to this time period, proves that this interbreeding went on there too." The fossils were recovered from the Tianyuan Cave, Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, China in 2003. Researchers say it should yield further clues about the transition from archaic to modern humans in eastern Eurasia. "The discovery promises to provide relevant paleontological data for our understanding of the emergence of modern humans in eastern Asia," added Trinkaus, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was co-authored by Trinkaus and Hong Shang, a colleague in the same department at Washington University and a scholar at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. © 2007 AFP http://www.physorg.com/news94753229.html Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek I see nothing in this paper to contradict the theory in Oppenheimer's book that the Red Sea was crossed around 80,000 years ago at its narrow part near the Gulf then there was speedy travel along the shorelines reaching East Asia within a few thousand years. On Apr 3, 2:11 am, "Douglas Clark" <dgdcl...@NOSPAMdgdclynx.plus.com> wrote: > I see nothing in this paper to contradict the theory in Oppenheimer's book that the Red Sea was crossed around 80,000 years ago at its narrow part near the Gulf then there was speedy travel along the shorelines reaching East Asia within a few thousand years. Me either. That's not the problem. The problem is the idea of linear descent from an original African Adam & Eve. Genetics dont work like that. With a genome as complicated as the hominids, the inbreeding would've led to severe deformity and they would have died out within 50 generations. Lookit the trouble the Pharoahs had with their sisters. No. What it explains is the relatively higher ratio of Homo Erectus and Homo Neandthalis haplotypes among the European and East Asian gene pools that is manifest in the way those cultures continued to develop. For one thing, hominds have instinctive behavior patterns the same as any other mammal. That resulted in, for instance, the typical Neanderthal stone flaking that continued *unchanged* for 100,000 years or more. But simply adding some African haplotypes disturbed the inherited patterns, and now the guys had to think about what they were doing. OTOH, in the tropics, there was no new blood, so they kept on doing it the way they always had, and were still at it only 100 years ago. As with dogs, and many other species, the *mongrelization* permitted new lines to develop like the Aryans and Shang. |
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