Are We All Asians?

Discover Magazine ^ | May-2006 | Susan Kruglinski

[blam]

Are We All Asians?

Renegade anthropologists rethink where humans came from.

By Susan Kruglinski

DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 05 | May 2006

Courtesy of G. Tsibahashivili (National Museum of Georgia)

One of the best-known theories about human evolution—that the ancestors of Homo sapiens originated in Africa before populating the rest of the world 2 million years ago—is coming under fire. In a challenge to conventional wisdom, Robin Dennell of the University of Sheffield in England and Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in the Netherlands argue that the "out of Africa" interpretation is built on shaky evidence. Maybe, they say, it is time to look to Asia instead.

Roebroeks and Dennell point out that recent fossil finds in the nation of Georgia suggest an Asian origin as much as an African one. "We know so little about Asia—and, for that matter, Africa—that we should be very careful not to turn a hypothesis into a stone-carved truth simply by repeating it too often," Roebroeks says. "We need comparable data sets from both continents."

Anthropologist Spencer Wells, whose genetic research supports a single African origin, welcomes this questioning of the status quo. "That Homo erectus could have origins in Asia would be potentially shocking," he says, "but I think that what Roebroeks and Dennell are saying reflects the state of the field. We certainly don't have enough fossils. Perhaps we are never going to be able to test this hypothesis."

Meanwhile, population geneticist Alan Templeton of Washington University in St. Louis is overturning ideas about human origins from another angle. He has analyzed genetic relationships among diverse groups of people and finds that today's humans show evidence of interbreeding among Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, and other early hominids over a wide span of time, from as far back as 1.5 million years ago until the last hypothesized global migration, around 80,000 years ago.
Templeton concludes that the humans who departed from Africa probably interbred with other early humans in Europe and Asia, contradicting the widely held notion that the Africans wiped out existing populations as they moved.

"We don't have a tree of human populations with branches for Europeans and Asians and Arabs," Templeton says. "It's more like a trellis: Things are intertwined."

[blam]

We are all one race. There are bits & pieces of all the humans that have ever lived in us today. Some of the Australian Aboriginies have brow ridges as severe as any ever recorded in 'archaic humans.'

We are Neanderthals.

[Straight Vermonter]

ping

[Mears]

You mean I'm related to Cleopatra?

Who knew?

[peyton randolph]

PING

[divine_moment_of_facts]

"We are Neanderthals."

Not all of us.. just liberals.
How's it going finding that missing link, scientists?

[manwiththehands]

Speak for yourself, Blam blam. :-)

[blam]

GGG Ping.

I posted the below linked article a couple years ago and have linked it often in subsequent posts. This is one of the discoveries that is causing all the 're-think.' I recommend reading it.

Stranger In A New Land

[Old_Mil]

One of the best-known theories about human evolution—that the ancestors of Homo sapiens originated in Africa before populating the rest of the world 2 million years ago—is coming under fire. In a challenge to conventional wisdom, Robin Dennell of the University of Sheffield in England and Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in the Netherlands argue that the "out of Africa" interpretation is built on shaky evidence. Maybe, they say, it is time to look to Asia instead.

Indeed.

[Old_Mil]

"We know so little about Asia—and, for that matter, Africa—that we should be very careful not to turn a hypothesis into a stone-carved truth simply by repeating it too often," Roebroeks says.

Indeed.

[facedown]

We are all one race.

Amen, brother.

[manwiththehands]

We were all dreamed up and came into existence from a Far Side cartoon.

[AntiGuv]

Thanks for the ping! That one looks very interesting and I'll read it tonight.

[escapefromboston]

Homo erectus

BWAHahahahhahahaa!!!!!!!!

[ansel12]

I think we came from France.

[Rakkasan1]

The Vapors


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[Domestic Church]

""We don't have a tree of human populations with branches for Europeans and Asians and Arabs," Templeton says. "It's more like a trellis: Things are intertwined.""

I want to see his trellis!

[Ragnorak]

Meanwhile, population geneticist Alan Templeton of Washington University in St. Louis is overturning ideas about human origins from another angle

I've run across Alan Templeton before. He 's the one that claimed "race" doesn't genetically exist back in the mid 90's. "Race is real in a political, social sense, but it's not biological." He is oft quoted by leftist indoctrination propaganda also known as Social Science College Textbooks.

I haven't researched enough of what he's done to say he's nothing but a hack, but he sure gets cited and quoted by a lot of hacks. His quotes in news stories referencing his work peg him as fact fudging lib, but who believes quotes from AP or the NYT?

[PatrickHenry]

My granddaddy weren't no durned Homo habilis.

[blam]

"I want to see his trellis!"

There's a picture of it in Milford Wolpoff's book, Race And Human Evolution.

Research Suggests A More Complex Evolution And Spread Of Modern Humans

"Their findings reveal the presence of DNA signatures whose origins are far more ancient than would have been expected had homo sapiens not intermingled with other human groups. Templeton’s work suggests that there were at least two major expansion events out of Africa—the older one being between 420,000 and 840,000 years ago, and the more recent one between 80,000 and 150,000 years ago."

"According to Templeton, genes from these earlier movements are present in the human genome, and are specific to certain geographical regions. Thus, there may be residual Neanderthal genes in the genetic makeup of Europeans, and perhaps, homo erectus genes in some Asian populations. Templeton writes; “If there had been a replacement event, the three significant genetic signatures of the older expansion event and the six significant genetic signatures of older recurrent gene flow would have been wiped away.”

[Stone Mountain]

Ah, the Vapors. They were a great group - just a little ahead of their time - they were doing "new rock" before the term came into being. Their New Clear Days album was outstanding...