Anthropology/Chapter12 Notes
Background Info/Notes:
Neanderthal 600-350 thousand ya dating to Pleistocene found in Europe and parts of
western and central Asia
200,000 ya the first Homo sapiens population appeared in Africa
Within 150,000 ya descendant had spread across most of Old World , Australia and later
to America
African pop of H.heidelbergensis are most likely ancestors of earliest H.sapiens; direct
ancestors of all contemporary human skeletally, genetically and most likely behaviorally,
fully human
Upper Paleolithic period begins in Western Europe around 40,000 ya -10,000 ya,
profound changes of human culture
Approach to Understanding Modern Human Origins
2 major theories:
Regional Continuity Model: Multi regional Replacement Model
Evolution
Milford Wolpoff: local pop Europe, Asia and - first evolved in Africa and dispersed later,
Africa continued their indigenous evolutionay two versions
development from premodern Pleistocene
complete replacement: modern pop
denying earliest modern H.sapies arose in Africa within 200,000 ya and
originated from Africa migrated from Africa replacing pop in
significant gene flow (migration) Europe and Asia;
between geographically dispersed pre-
modern pop were throughout Andrew & Stinger -> modern human
Pleistocene appeared as a result of biological
speciation. African could not interbred
with local non-African pop (potential
for interbreeding very little actually
took place)
2. Partial replacement: Neanderthal
genes still present arguing against
complete replacement interbreed took
place, John Reletford 1-4% in modern
pop outside Africa, contemp Africans
no trace of genes; interbreeding occurred after modern humans
migrated out of Africa
- intermixing occurred 80000-50000ya
in the Middle East
African pop have greater diversity from elsewhere in the world
Most molecular data come from contemporary species since DNA is not usually
preserved in long-dead individuals
Researches sequence mtDNA of 9 ancient fully modern H.sapiens skeletons
from site in Italy, France the Czech Republic and Russia
2010 , took 4 years, sequenced Neanderthal genome revealed some pop still
retain some genes; interbreeding took place between Neanderthals and human->
partial replacement
Fred Smith: “asmiliation”, more interbreeding took place in some regions
DNA thousand of ys can be be obtained cold environment, warm degrades
rapidly
The Earliest Discoveries of Modern Humans
Africa
200,000- 100,000 ya has been several fully anatomically modern forms
Earliest come from Omo Kibish in southernmost Ethiopia, skull (Omo 1) 195,000 ya this
is the earliest modern human yet found in Africa
Omo 1 is essentially modern because of a chin, variety of modern human characteristics
Omo 2 is more robust and less modern in morphology
Later, Klaisies River mouth on the south coast of Africa and Border Cave, 120000-80000
ya
Early modern humans appeared in East Africa by 200,000ya had migrated to southern
Africa by 100,000ya
Tim White , Later Middle Awash of Ethopia Ardipithecus and Australopithecus H.erectus
Herto fossils/ Homo sapiens idaltu: adult cranium, incomp
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