For years, scientists believed that modern humans, Homo sapiens, remained in Africa for a long time before a small group left the continent about 50,000 years ago to populate the rest of the world. However, recent research questions this chronology, suggesting multiple waves of migration from Africa as early as 250,000 years ago.
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Several waves of migration
Dr. Sara Tyshkoff, a geneticist from the University of Pennsylvania, explains that there was not just one migration from Africa, but several at different periods. This new understanding comes from DNA studies of Neanderthals and modern humans.
Neanderthal connection
Neanderthals, whose origins began in Africa about 600,000 years ago, spread to Europe and Asia. In 2010, Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published the first Neanderthal genome reconstructed from 40,000-year-old fossils.
Their research showed that non-Africans today carry fragments of Neanderthal DNA, indicating interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans. This interbreeding occurred between 47,000 and 40,000 years ago.
Early genetic evidence
In 2020, researchers discovered that Neanderthals inherited a new Y chromosome from humans between 370,000 and 100,000 years ago. This suggests that an early wave of Africans left the continent much earlier than previously thought.
Discovery in Modern African Genomes
Dr Tyshkoff and her colleagues found tiny fragments of Neanderthal DNA in the genomes of 12 African populations, suggesting an early wave of migration out of Africa around 250,000 years ago. Similarly, a team led by Dr. Joshua Aki of Princeton University found evidence supporting multiple migration waves between 200,000 and 250,000 years ago and another wave between 120,000 and 100,000 years ago.
Fossil evidence
Dr. Kateryna Harvati, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Tübingen, emphasized that the mysterious human fossils in Europe and the Middle East may belong to these early waves. For example, a fragment of a skull from Greece, which is more than 210,000 years old, shows features of modern human anatomy.
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The data obtained indicate that early human history involved repeated migrations from Africa. These early groups may have faced competition with Neanderthals for resources and land. A decline in the Neanderthal population around the time of the last great wave of migration may have given modern humans an advantage.
Cultural and technological progress
It is possible that African populations developed cultural and technological innovations, such as new tools, that helped them adapt and succeed in their new environment. This may explain why the most recent wave of migration from Africa had a more significant and lasting impact.
These discoveries change our understanding of human evolution, highlighting the complexity and dynamism of early human migrations. As research continues, we can expect even more insights into the ancient journeys that shaped our species.
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