Latest Recent single origin hypothesis Stories

A new study examining the genealogies of early human pioneers suggests that settlers who were first to colonize a new region of the world produced more offspring than the settlers who followed them, giving them a selective advantage. The international team of researchers, who specialize in studying the effects of rapid territorial and demographic expansions on recent human evolution, analyzed the growth of human colonies in an area of Quebec, Canada, between 1686 and 1960.  They found...

By taking a second look at seemingly insignificant fossils, two international teams of researchers have discovered that modern humans arrived in Europe earlier than scientists had originally believed, various media outlets reported on Wednesday. According to AP Science Writer Alicia Chang, the fossils at the center of the discovery were a piece of jawbone with three teeth from England, and a pair of infant teeth from the southern part of Italy. Using what Chang refers to as "refined...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolutionary history shows that human populations likely originated in Africa, and the Genographic Project, the most extensive survey of human population genetic data to date, suggests where they went next. A study by the Project finds that modern humans migrated out of Africa via a southern route through Arabia, rather than a northern route by way of Egypt. These findings will be highlighted today at a conference at the National Geographic Society....

Humans not only mated with the ancient Neanderthals, but according to a new study from Uppsala University researchers, the East Asian population of the modern species may have also mated with a hominin species known as Denisovans that lived in Siberia 40,000 years ago. Denisovans are only known from a few bone fragments, including a finger bone, a tooth and a possible toe bone, which is still undergoing analysis. Denisovans likely split from the Neanderthal tree around 300,000 years ago,...

[ Watch the Video ] Archaeologists have uncovered two shells near the southern coast of South Africa that contain a primitive paint mixture, revealing what experts believe may be the remnants of the world’s earliest art studio. The 100,000-year-old workshop was likely used to mix and store the reddish pigment ochre, and was unearthed in Blombos Cave near Cape Town.  The scientists had previously found some of the earliest sharp stone tools at this same site, along with evidence of...

An international team of scientists, including researchers from Murdoch University, have just published findings that re-interpret the history of our species' original dispersals across the planet. Using a piece of hair donated by a West Australian Aboriginal man around 100 years ago, the team sequenced an individual's entire DNA code (or genome) to prove that multiple dispersals of early humans populated the world, contrary to the commonly-held single dispersal theory. Perth,...

   [ Watch The Video ] An international team of researchers have sequenced the genome of an Aboriginal Australian and determine that early humans settled eastern Asia in two waves rather than just one. The study has broad implications for understanding how our human ancestors migrated across the globe. The scientists sequenced the genome of a lock of hair donated to a British anthropologist by an Aboriginal man from the Goldfields region of Western Australia in the early 20th...

In an intriguing original look at the history of the first Americans, a new study finds evidence that the north-south orientation of the American continents slowed the spread of populations and technology, compared to the east-west axis of Eurasia. The research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, is part of a special section which explores who the first Americans were and how they were able to settle in the last great unexplored habitat. The research, by Sohini...

Research at the University of Liverpool has found that periods of rapid fluctuation in temperature coincided with the emergence of the first distant relatives of human beings and the appearance and spread of stone tools. Dr Matt Grove from the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology reconstructed likely responses of human ancestors to the climate of the past five million years using genetic modeling techniques. When results were mapped against the timeline of human evolution, Dr...

Researchers at Brown University and Stanford University have pieced together ancient human migration in North and South America. Writing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the authors find that technology spread more slowly in the Americas than in Eurasia. Population groups in the Americas have less frequent exchanges than groups that fanned out over  Europe and Asia. How modern-day humans dispersed on the planet and the pace of civilization-changing technologies that...