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Homo sapiens sapiens: Researchers want to have discovered the cradle of modern man

2019-10-28T20:58:43.159Z


Modern man evolved in Africa at least 200,000 years ago. Where exactly, now wants to have identified a study.



Scientists have, according to a new study for the first time the exact birthplace of modern humans located. The Homo sapiens sapiens lived about 200,000 years ago in the north of today's Botswana, before he migrated to other regions, according to the study, which was published in the journal "Nature".

"We've known for a long time that modern humans appeared in Africa around 200,000 years ago, but until now we did not know exactly where their homeland was," said lead author of the study, Vanessa Hayes of the University of Sydney. Her team of international scientists have used DNA analysis, linguistic and geographic data, and climate models to identify the birthplace of humans.

In the area called Makgadikgadi-Okavango, south of the river Zambezi, there used to be a huge lake. He was about twice the size of today's Lake Victoria. Today, the area is largely desert. Our ancestors lived in the area for approximately 70,000 years, according to the study, before being forced to migrate to other areas due to climatic changes.

For their analysis, the team led by Vanessa Hayes evaluated more than 1,200 DNA samples from living people from southern Africa. Among other things, members of the Khoisan population participated in the study, which still communicate with "click" sounds today. The Khoisan are, according to previous genetic studies, the oldest existing human group today.

Research results are controversial

For the current study, the scientists analyzed mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on only from mother to child. Their goal was to map back as far as possible the maternal lineage of people living today. Hayes and her colleagues argue that this is the way to locate a common home region stretching from Namibia to Botswana to Zimbabwe.

Other researchers reacted with skepticism to the results. "I'm definitely wary of using modern genetic distributions to pinpoint where the first populations lived 200,000 years ago - especially on such a large and complex continent as Africa," said paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum British newspaper "The Guardian". Because the study looked at just a fraction of the human genome, it could not make a generalized statement about the complex genetic source.

According to the report, the American geneticist Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania objected: "It is not possible to draw conclusions about the geographic origin of modern humans in Africa, if one analyzes only the patterns of variation of modern populations. that man has traveled very far in his history. " For the past 80,000 years alone, a diverse migration within Africa and from Africa can be documented.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2019-10-28

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