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Mason Weyland

Teri Potter

July 24, 2018

Anthropology 1020

Modern Human Origins

Anthropologists have two theories about modern human origins. Those two theories are,

Regional Continuity and Replacement. The first theory, Regional Continuity, suggests that

Homo erectus left Africa and spread into portions of the world. On the other side, Replacement

theory, suggests that humans evolved relatively recently in Africa and migrated throughout the

world and replaced all decedents from Homo erectus. There are evidence supporting both

theories in Donald Johanson’s article Origins of Modern Humans: Multiregional or Out of

Africa. He likes to point out that this is “One of the most hotly debated issues in

paleoanthropology” (Johanson).

Johanson states that 100,000 years ago there were a diverse group of hominids walking

about in the old world. There were Homo sapiens in Africa and the Middle East, there were

Homo erectus in Asia, and in Europe there were Homo neanderthalensis, reinforcing his point

that the old world was a diverse group of hominids. 30,000 years ago, humans everywhere began

to evolve into its modern form. Johanson makes a couple of points to support each one of these

theories. Those points are:

Multiregional Continuity Model:

 some level of gene flow between geographically separated populations prevented
speciation, after the dispersal
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 all living humans derive from the species Homo erectus that left Africa nearly two
million-years-ago (Johanson)

Out of Africa Model

 after Homo erectus migrated out of Africa the different populations became
reproductively isolated, evolving independently, and in some cases like the
Neanderthals, into separate species
 Homo sapiens arose in one place, probably Africa (geographically this includes
the Middle East) (Johanson)

Going into more detail about Multi Regional Theory, I found an article Multiregional

Hypothesis: Human Evolutionary Theory by K. Kris Hirst. He stated that “after H. erectus arrived

in the various regions in the world hundreds of thousands of years ago, they slowly evolved into

modern humans.” (Hirst). Hirst then states that recent evidence gathered since the 1980’s, says

that this cannot be the case. Homo sapiens evolved in Africa. Fossil discoveries in the 20’s and

30’s, made it clear that human evolution was older than previously thought with the

identification of Australopithecus. Much older fossils were found in east and south Africa. Hirst

began to talk about the genetics of ancient beings.

If multiregional evolution theory was correct, then there would be various levels of

ancient genetics found in modern people. Only 18,000 people today have mtDNA genomes

published from all over the world. “they all coalesce within the last 200,000 years and all the

non-African lineages only 50,000-60,000 years old or younger. Any hominin lineage that

branched off from the modern human species prior to 200,000 years ago did not leave any

mtDNA in modern humans.” (Hirst). From this article, this theory might not be correct. Many

things don’t line up with what this theory suggests.

Looking more closely at the Replacement theory, might be more promising. In an article

that I found out of the University of Cambridge, New Research confirms ‘Out Of Africa’ Theory Of

Human Evolution, suggest that this theory is confirmed the right one. The first paragraph states

“Researchers have produced new DNA evidence that almost certainly confirms the theory that all

modern humans have a common ancestry. The genetic survey, produced by a collaborative team
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led by scholars at Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin Universities, shows that Australia's aboriginal

population sprang from the same tiny group of colonists, along with their New Guinean

neighbours.” (Cambridge). This states that all modern humans stem from a group of homo

sapiens who emigrated from Africa. There was a DNA test on Aboriginal Australians and

Melanesians from New Guinea. Their DNA was compared to DNA patterns that are associated

with early humans. It was shown that they share common genetic features that have been linked

to the exodus of modern humans from Africa 50,000 years ago.

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References
Cambridge, University of. New Research Confirms 'Out of Africa' Theory of Human Evolution. 10 May
2007. 24 July 2018. <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070509161829.htm>.

Hirst, K. Kris. Multiregional Hypothesis: Human Evolutionary Theory. 5 March 2018. 24 July 2018.
<https://www.thoughtco.com/multiregional-hypothesis-167235>.

Johanson, Donald. Origins of modern humans: Multiregional of Out of Africa. May 2001. 24 July 2018.
<http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/johanson.html>.