Evolution of Modern Humans

[sayak83]

In a previous thread, I had sketched the evolution of our human ancestors till Homo erectus, the first species of our genus to colonize Asia and Europe. I hope to continue the scientific narrative for modern humans.
The Science of Human Evolution

The modern humans slowly evolve from descendents of H. ergaster is East Africa from 200,000 years ago onwards.
Evolution of Modern Humans:  Early Modern Homo sapiens

By 120,000 years they extend their range to South Africa and by 100,000 years they had expanded into Middle East. Thus begins a period of slow expansion into parts of Asia where they parially interbreed with Neanderthals (in Middle East) and denisovians in China. But their presence at this stage in Europe and Asia was quite small and they coexistence with other human groups like Neanderthals. The main migration event out of Africa occurs at around 60,000 years ago and is accompanied by large population growth and new technologies. Today most humans outside of Africa can trace 95% of their genetic heritage from this migration that occured at 55,000 years.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016...-trace-back-single-migration-more-50000-years


They conclude that, like most other living Eurasians, Aborigines descend from a single group of modern humans who swept out of Africa 50,000 to 60,000 years ago and then spread in different directions. The papers “are really important,” says population geneticist Joshua Akey of the University of Washington, Seattle, offering powerful testimony that “the vast majority of non-Africans [alive today] trace their ancestry back to a single out-of-Africa event.”


They find that a wetter climate and lower sea levels could have enticed humans to cross from Africa into the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East during four periods, roughly around 100,000, 80,000, 55,000, and 37,000 years ago. “I’m very happy,” Petraglia says. His and others’ discoveries of early stone tools in India and Arabia suggest that moderns did expand out of Africa during the early migration windows. But those lineages mostly died out. The major migration, with more people and reaching all the way to Australia, came later. “Demographically, after 60,000 years ago something happens, with larger waves of moderns across Eurasia,” Petraglia says. “All three papers agree with that.”


I hope to provide the key evidence that helps scientists to put together the picture of how modern humans replaced all other human species on the planet and became as successful as they are today.

 

[Alison Wonderland]

Fascinating post; thanks.

Any chance, in your studies, that the "key" you allude to in your final paragraph could be attributed to psilocybin or cannabinoid-like substances which resulted in thought processes that, in turn, led to agriculture, politics, etc?

 

[VioletVortex]

Man did not originate in Africa. We have two separate origins. There is no hominid "common ancestor". Europeans and Asians originated in Eurasia near the Caucasus and Urals mountains. These people then traveled southward into North Africa where they interbred with the native Africans, who also had very distant origins in Asia.

All primate species have their roots in Asia.

 

[Skwim]

Man did not originate in Africa. We have two separate origins. There is no hominid "common ancestor". Europeans and Asians originated in Eurasia near the Caucasus and Urals mountains. These people then traveled southward into North Africa where they interbred with the native Africans, who also had very distant origins in Asia.

All primate species have their roots in Asia.

Of course you have evidence to present. Which is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And what do you do with Mitochondrial Eve?

.

 

[sayak83]

Fascinating post; thanks.

Any chance, in your studies, that the "key" you allude to in your final paragraph could be attributed to psilocybin or cannabinoid-like substances which resulted in thought processes that, in turn, led to agriculture, politics, etc?

Umm... not that I know of. But will check

 

[Valjean]

Man did not originate in Africa. We have two separate origins. There is no hominid "common ancestor". Europeans and Asians originated in Eurasia near the Caucasus and Urals mountains. These people then traveled southward into North Africa where they interbred with the native Africans, who also had very distant origins in Asia.

All primate species have their roots in Asia.

Could you post some evidence of this? It's my understanding that the fossil and DNA evidence indicate modern Hominins radiated out of Africa.

 

[sayak83]

The original art workshop

The blombos cave complex in South Africa is justly famous for providing some of the earliest evidence of sophisticated art and stone technology that is the characteristic of Modern humans. The earliest evidence goes into 100,000 years past and one finds earliest evidence of manufacture and storage of paint pigments along with the engraving of abstract shapes.

100,000 Year-Old Incised Ochre Found At Blombos Cave

In Africa, this includes two deliberately engraved ochre pieces from c. 75,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave, Western Cape, South Africa and the greater than 55,000 year old incised ostrich egg shell from the Diepkloof shelter, located in the same province.

Here we report on thirteen additional pieces of incised ochre recovered from c. 75,000–100,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave. These finds, taken together with other engraved objects reported from other southern African sites, suggest that symbolic intent and tradition were present in this region at an earlier date than previously thought.

What makes the Blombos engravings different is that some of them appear to represent a deliberate will to produce a complex abstract design,” Henshilwood says. “We have not before seen well-dated and unambiguous traces of this kind of behavior at 100,000 years ago.”

100,000-Year-Old Art Workshop Discovered in South Africa

This discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human cognition (mental processes) in that it shows that humans had the conceptual ability to source, combine and store substances that were then possibly used to enhance their social practices. We believe that the manufacturing process involved the rubbing of pieces of ochre on quartzite slabs to produce a fine red powder. Ochre chips were crushed with quartz, quartzite and silcrete hammerstones/grinders and combined with heated crushed, mammal-bone, charcoal, stone chips and a liquid, which was then introduced to the abalone shells and gently stirred. A bone was probably used to stir the mixture and to transfer some of the mixture out of the shell."

It is noted that this ability to carefully make and store paint pigments and create abstract engravings is yet to be seen in Neanderthal sites even though they are contemporary of humans and will remain till 30000 years ago. Thus we can infer that modern humans, from 100,000 years, were beginning to show potential for art and symbolic representation that any other group don't have.

 

[Twilight Hue]

In a previous thread, I had sketched the evolution of our human ancestors till Homo erectus, the first species of our genus to colonize Asia and Europe. I hope to continue the scientific narrative for modern humans.
The Science of Human Evolution

The modern humans slowly evolve from descendents of H. ergaster is East Africa from 200,000 years ago onwards.
Evolution of Modern Humans: Early Modern Homo sapiens

By 120,000 years they extend their range to South Africa and by 100,000 years they had expanded into Middle East. Thus begins a period of slow expansion into parts of Asia where they parially interbreed with Neanderthals (in Middle East) and denisovians in China. But their presence at this stage in Europe and Asia was quite small and they coexistence with other human groups like Neanderthals. The main migration event out of Africa occurs at around 60,000 years ago and is accompanied by large population growth and new technologies. Today most humans outside of Africa can trace 95% of their genetic heritage from this migration that occured at 55,000 years.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016...-trace-back-single-migration-more-50000-years


They conclude that, like most other living Eurasians, Aborigines descend from a single group of modern humans who swept out of Africa 50,000 to 60,000 years ago and then spread in different directions. The papers “are really important,” says population geneticist Joshua Akey of the University of Washington, Seattle, offering powerful testimony that “the vast majority of non-Africans [alive today] trace their ancestry back to a single out-of-Africa event.”


They find that a wetter climate and lower sea levels could have enticed humans to cross from Africa into the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East during four periods, roughly around 100,000, 80,000, 55,000, and 37,000 years ago. “I’m very happy,” Petraglia says. His and others’ discoveries of early stone tools in India and Arabia suggest that moderns did expand out of Africa during the early migration windows. But those lineages mostly died out. The major migration, with more people and reaching all the way to Australia, came later. “Demographically, after 60,000 years ago something happens, with larger waves of moderns across Eurasia,” Petraglia says. “All three papers agree with that.”


I hope to provide the key evidence that helps scientists to put together the picture of how modern humans replaced all other human species on the planet and became as successful as they are today.

What do you think of Pangea and early humans. I suspect continental drift played a role since the early arrival of humanoid species.

 

[Valjean]

What do you think of Pangea and early humans. I suspect continental drift played a role since the early arrival of humanoid species.

Pangea broke up ~175 million years ago. No mammal larger than a rat would exist till the dinosaurs were wiped out ~65 million years ago.

In the short history of human existence, continental drift has been negligible, though climate change and sea rise and fall were a major factors.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Did you ever think of taking a moment to thank Panama? I found the following to be both fascinating and fun to read:

Children of the Ice Age: How a Global Catastrophe Allowed Humans to Evolve

 

[VioletVortex]

Could you post some evidence of this? It's my understanding that the fossil and DNA evidence indicate modern Hominins radiated out of Africa.

First, even more mainstream researchers state that "humans" or even pseudo-humans of sorts did not migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia. Instead, it has been found by these studies more likely that certain primate species with more distant relation to humans migrated into Asia where they then evolved into humans. This seems more likely than men migrating north during the last Ice Age. You can do some reading and find this for yourself. However, I do not think that this is entirely true. I think that two different species developed, and yes, interchange occurred both ways. For example, in Scandinavia, the people are almost 100 percent Eurasia, but in the Mediterranean, multiple crosses have occurred.

I think that human phenotype is based more off of migration and admixture than it is evolution. If this were the case, then blue eyes present in Indian people (a trait brought to the region by Indo-Europeans) would have certainly disappeared by now.

 

[Polymath257]

There was a recent article in Nature suggesting the existence of humans in California about 130,000 years ago. This was a site with mammoth bones that were processed with cobbles, so the evidence is indirect.

The LCA for hominids was in Africa, not Asia. It was also about 5-7 million years ago.

As for modern humans, the migration patterns early on are far from clear. Exactly how modern humans interacted with Neanderthals and other sub-species is also very controversial at this point.

 

[ChristineM]

Man did not originate in Africa. We have two separate origins. There is no hominid "common ancestor". Europeans and Asians originated in Eurasia near the Caucasus and Urals mountains. These people then traveled southward into North Africa where they interbred with the native Africans, who also had very distant origins in Asia.

All primate species have their roots in Asia.

China has been teaching a separate human origin in asia for a long time, however evidence provided by dr Alice Roberts and other including dna evidence has caused China to re think. No longer is the dual origin taught and the Chinese government are spending millions re examining and re evaluating their evidence. They have in these renewed works discovered previously unknown species of homo. But as far as i am aware have not found anything to counter the out of Africa migrations

 

[ChristineM]

First, even more mainstream researchers state that "humans" or even pseudo-humans of sorts did not migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia. Instead, it has been found by these studies more likely that certain primate species with more distant relation to humans migrated into Asia where they then evolved into humans. This seems more likely than men migrating north during the last Ice Age. You can do some reading and find this for yourself. However, I do not think that this is entirely true. I think that two different species developed, and yes, interchange occurred both ways. For example, in Scandinavia, the people are almost 100 percent Eurasia, but in the Mediterranean, multiple crosses have occurred.

I think that human phenotype is based more off of migration and admixture than it is evolution. If this were the case, then blue eyes present in Indian people (a trait brought to the region by Indo-Europeans) would have certainly disappeared by now.

Blue eyes originated in what is now Turkey about 6 to 10000 years ago. It is caused by a genetic mutation, not in the gene responsible for eye colour but an adjacent gene.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130170343.htm

 

[ChristineM]

What do you think of Pangea and early humans. I suspect continental drift played a role since the early arrival of humanoid species.

Pangea broke up around 175 million years ago

The first primates were about 50 to 54 million years ago

First homo like apes, ardipithecus appeared about 5 million years ago.

The first homo sapiens evolved about 200,000 years ago

 

[ChristineM]

The original art workshop

The blombos cave complex in South Africa is justly famous for providing some of the earliest evidence of sophisticated art and stone technology that is the characteristic of Modern humans. The earliest evidence goes into 100,000 years past and one finds earliest evidence of manufacture and storage of paint pigments along with the engraving of abstract shapes.

100,000 Year-Old Incised Ochre Found At Blombos Cave

In Africa, this includes two deliberately engraved ochre pieces from c. 75,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave, Western Cape, South Africa and the greater than 55,000 year old incised ostrich egg shell from the Diepkloof shelter, located in the same province.

Here we report on thirteen additional pieces of incised ochre recovered from c. 75,000–100,000 year old levels at Blombos Cave. These finds, taken together with other engraved objects reported from other southern African sites, suggest that symbolic intent and tradition were present in this region at an earlier date than previously thought.

What makes the Blombos engravings different is that some of them appear to represent a deliberate will to produce a complex abstract design,” Henshilwood says. “We have not before seen well-dated and unambiguous traces of this kind of behavior at 100,000 years ago.”

100,000-Year-Old Art Workshop Discovered in South Africa

This discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human cognition (mental processes) in that it shows that humans had the conceptual ability to source, combine and store substances that were then possibly used to enhance their social practices. We believe that the manufacturing process involved the rubbing of pieces of ochre on quartzite slabs to produce a fine red powder. Ochre chips were crushed with quartz, quartzite and silcrete hammerstones/grinders and combined with heated crushed, mammal-bone, charcoal, stone chips and a liquid, which was then introduced to the abalone shells and gently stirred. A bone was probably used to stir the mixture and to transfer some of the mixture out of the shell."

It is noted that this ability to carefully make and store paint pigments and create abstract engravings is yet to be seen in Neanderthal sites even though they are contemporary of humans and will remain till 30000 years ago. Thus we can infer that modern humans, from 100,000 years, were beginning to show potential for art and symbolic representation that any other group don't have.

Fascinating and a subject close to my heart, well close-ish. As a hobby i study cro magnon and spend many happy hour crawling in caves throughout south west France to examine the cave art in ocre and carbon from 25 to 30 thousand years ago. Its nice to see possible origins of this.

 

[sayak83]

First, even more mainstream researchers state that "humans" or even pseudo-humans of sorts did not migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia. Instead, it has been found by these studies more likely that certain primate species with more distant relation to humans migrated into Asia where they then evolved into humans. This seems more likely than men migrating north during the last Ice Age. You can do some reading and find this for yourself. However, I do not think that this is entirely true. I think that two different species developed, and yes, interchange occurred both ways. For example, in Scandinavia, the people are almost 100 percent Eurasia, but in the Mediterranean, multiple crosses have occurred.

I think that human phenotype is based more off of migration and admixture than it is evolution. If this were the case, then blue eyes present in Indian people (a trait brought to the region by Indo-Europeans) would have certainly disappeared by now.

Please provide links to the scientific articles please.

 

[sayak83]

There was a recent article in Nature suggesting the existence of humans in California about 130,000 years ago. This was a site with mammoth bones that were processed with cobbles, so the evidence is indirect.

The LCA for hominids was in Africa, not Asia. It was also about 5-7 million years ago.

As for modern humans, the migration patterns early on are far from clear. Exactly how modern humans interacted with Neanderthals and other sub-species is also very controversial at this point.

It is currently very speculative.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/were-humans-americas-100000-years-earlier-scientists-thought

 

[Polymath257]

It is currently very speculative.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/were-humans-americas-100000-years-earlier-scientists-thought

Agreed.

 

[Polymath257]

First, even more mainstream researchers state that "humans" or even pseudo-humans of sorts did not migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia. Instead, it has been found by these studies more likely that certain primate species with more distant relation to humans migrated into Asia where they then evolved into humans.

This is usually called the Multi-regional hypothesis (as opposed to the Replacement hypothesis). While Homo erectus certainly did migrate to Asia before modern humans developed, it is far from clear that they then evolved into modern humans there. In fact, the mtDNA evidence points to an initial split to modern humans happening in southern Africa around 150,000 years ago, with subsequent migration to Europe and Asia. There appears to have been some (probably minor) interbreeding with the Neanderthals in Europe, but the evidence for such interbreeding with Asian populations is lacking, from what I understand.

The result is that the MH is now out of favor and the RH, slightly modified is the current consensus.

Do you have any evidence for a significant Asian interbreeding or separate evolution into modern humans?