Posted on 02/20/2007 6:28:12 PM PST by blam
Spread Of Modern Humans Occurred Later Than Previously Thought, Profs Say
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The spread of modern humans out of Africa occurred 40,000 to 50,000 years later than previously thought, according to researchers including one Texas A&M University anthropologist.
Ted Goebel, associate director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, is the author of the paper titled “The Missing Years for Modern Humans” that appears in the Jan. 12 (Friday) issue of Science.
Goebel’s paper is one of three published in the current issue of Science dealing with the origins and dispersals of modern humans during the Ice Age. A fourth paper appeared in a previous issue of the journal.
The other papers are written by human paleontologist Frederick Grine of Stony Brook University, geneticist Annamaria Olivieri from the University of Pavia in Italy, and archeologists Michael Anikovich and Andre Sinitsyn of the Russian Academy of Science and John Hoffecker of the University of Colorado.
“All of them have one thing in common,” says Goebel of the papers. “They are all trying to investigate and demonstrate when it was that modern humans evolved in Africa, left Africa and colonized different areas of the Old World.”
Previous theories held that modern humans spread from Africa 100,000 years ago. New data, however, suggest that their migration occurred only 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, Goebel argues. Additionally, the spread of modern humans in eastern Europe and Russia occurred earlier than previously thought notes Goebel.
The new information, according to Goebel, is based on paleontological evidence of human fossils including a modern human skull from Hofmeyer, South Africa that was discovered in 1952, mitochondrial DNA used to research modern human dispersal from western Asia and archeological evidence from artifacts found at the Kostenki sites along the Don River in Russia.
Using a combination of dating techniques on the skull, Grine and his colleagues determined that sediment in the skull’s endocranial cavity was deposited 36,000 years ago. According to the authors, the Hofmeyer skull is more similar to modern humans of Upper Paleolithic Europe than recent South Africans or Europeans and has little in common with Neanderthals.
“The idea is that modern humans developed around 100,000 years ago or so in east Africa,” says Goebel. “When they developed the physical and behavioral repertoire that we consider to be modern, they then successfully colonized new areas. This new evidence suggests that modern humans spread out of Africa very late in the Pleistocene era.”
The DNA analyzed by Olivieri suggests that two genetic lineages originated simultaneously in western Asia between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago and from there spread into northern Africa. And artifacts found at the Kostenki sites led researchers to believe that part of central Eurasia and Russia were colonized just as early as Europe by modern humans.
“Why is it such a big deal? The big deal is we have these models that we use to explain the origin and dispersal of modern humans,” says Goebel. “But we still don’t have all of the evidence required to test these models – to disprove or prove them.”
“What we have are three pieces of the puzzle and they help us test the new theory and all pretty much support this notion that modern humans evolved in Africa and then they spread from Africa.”
Contact: Ted Goebel, Center for the Study of the First Americans, 979-845-4046, goebel@tamu.edu or Tim Schnettler, Marketing & Communications, 979-845-4680, tschnettler@tamu.edu.
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Well, some have not evolved even till now.
I think he's missing the 100,000 in front of his numbers...
And soon they'll discover it was really 5000 years ago that humans spread. Just as the bible says.
You are exactly right.
Was Alley oop modern?
There's a man in the funny papers we all know
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
He lives 'way back a long time ago
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
He don't eat nothin' but a bear cat stew
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
Well, this cat's name is-a Alley-Oop
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
He got a chauffeur that's a genuwine dinosawruh
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
And he can knuckle your head before you count to fawruh
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
He got a big ugly club and a head fulla hairuh
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
Like great big lions and grizzly bearuhs
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley-Oop) He's the toughest man there is alive
(Alley-Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
(Alley-Oop) He's the king of the jungle jive
(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM)
He rides thru the jungle tearin' limbs offa trees
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
Knockin' great big monstahs dead on their knees
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
The cats don't bug him cuz they know bettah
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
Cuz he's a mean motah scootah and a bad go-gettah
(Alley-Oop, oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley-Oop) He's the toughest man there is alive
(Alley-Oop) Wears clothes from a wildcat's hide
(Alley-Oop) He's the king of the jungle jive
(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM)
Thair he goes,
Bet he had to walk backward carrying a heavy load to keep on that timetable.
Frankly, I think modern man originated in Iraq.
Which is kind of sad...
Absolutely astounding, but then not so astoudning when you consider how fast the spread of the Clinton virus.
Milford Wolpoff, call yer office...
It's getting mighty close to the declaration years ago by N. Narain, an Indian archaeologist, who said Europeans can trace their roots to China.
YEC INTREP
China? you lost me on that one.
China is an end state, not a beginning.
Fascinating graphics, on that journey link.
I have issues with it, but fascinating.
The longer I listen to scientists talk the more I suspect that they secretly don't know what their talking about.
Curious information here...and maybe Dennis Sanford is busy writing a book. I'll keep an eye peeled.
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