Africa the common human home

Africa the common human home
Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:20:26

Analysis of thousands of skulls approves that we are all out of Africa.

Researchers have found that all humans have originated from a single point in Africa and so the idea of multiple origins is no longer valid.

The researchers at Cambridge University analyzed thousands of skulls and found that humans started spreading out of Africa some 50,000 years ago, according to news agencies.

The genetic evidence has always strongly supported the single origin theory, and now results from a study of more than 6,000 skulls held around the world in academic collections supports this case.

"Now we can definitely say that modern humans have originated form a single area in Sub-Saharan Africa," said Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology.

The Cambridge work also suggests in-breeding with other early humans, such as Neanderthals, either did not happen or was insignificant. That is in contrast to recent suggestions that such hybrids may have been fairly common.

Chris Stringer, a palaeoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, said the new research was important for indicating that modern human diversity was derived entirely from Africa rather than coming from inter-mixing elsewhere.

MGH/HAR