I found an interesting paper published four years ago (Árnason, Ú. The unidirectional phylogeny of Homo sapiens anchors the origin of modern humans in Eurasia. Hereditas 158, 36 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41065-021-00197-7) that provides an analysis showing that Homo sapiens sapiens or modern humans originated in Eurasia!!
The author summarizes his "Out of Eurasia" findings as follows: He identified "potentially four translocations of modern humans from Eurasia into Africa, the earliest taking place ≈ 250,000 years before present, YBP. The results were in accordance with the postulates behind OOEH [Out of Eurasia Hypothesis] at the same time ... they lent no support to the OOAH [Out of Africa Hypothesis].
The paper places Homo erectus at the base of the nuclear DNA tree: "Homo erectus, He, has been placed at the root of the tree consistent with He entering Eurasia from Africa > 2 million years ago". The following image appears with the caption that is given below.
Fig. 1. Captioned: "The nuDNA phylogeny leading to Hss, Homo sapiens sapiens. Blue: Eurasian lineages. Red: African lineages. H. erectus has been placed at the root of the tree in accordance with the artefact sequence related to the Eurasian existence of He 2,12 MYBP. The divergence between Hs, H. sapiens, and Ha, H. antecessor, has been dated to ≈ 850,000 YBP, that between Hss and Hsn, H. s. neanderthalensis, to ≈ 800,000 YBP and that between Lund and Mbuti/San to ≈ 250,000 YBP. Hsn divides into Hsnn, Neanderthals proper, and Hsnd, Denisova, with Hsnn dividing further into SH-Hsnn (Hsnn at Sima de los Huesos) and Hsnn*, a branch arising as the result of the mtDNA introgression that took place from Hss into Hsnn* ≈ 500,000 YBP". Where Hsn is Neanderthal, HSnd, Denisovan.
Fig. 2's Caption reads: "The mtDNA relationships of Hs demonstrating the paraphyly of the African Hss populations as resolved by PPA. Blue: non-African taxa; red: African taxa. Hsnn*: Hsnn other than SH-Hsnn. The arrowheads signify the mtDNA introgression that gave rise to Hsnn*. The limitation of Hsnn to Eurasia places the mtDNA introgression in this continent, reversing the direction of Hss evolution behind OOAH. The Hss part of the tree underlines the phylogenetic continuity among non-African populations and the paraphyly of the African populations including the two Yoruba [1]. AuAb: Australian aborigines; PNG: Papua New Guinean; Han: Chinese; Lund: The first described non-chimaeric human mtDNA molecule [19]; French: A European, as representing previous genomic findings"
An interesting hypothesis that has surely been torn apart by those who support the OOA theory. Nevertheless, since 2021, findings in China have provided some additional support to the notion that there were evolved humans in Asia at least 200,000 years ago besides the Denisovans.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall ©
Agree with your closing comment…Yes, at the light of the evidence found in East Asia of evolution towards transitional species bearing traits that were, at least , within archaic H. sapiens parameters… OOA, as it was formerly structured, indeed presents aspects that are debatable today… Even when it seems undeniable that Africa was a pole of human evolution towards H sapiens (and surely, could have been an important one…), in my opinion, what may be more questionable of this hypothesis, is precisely its supposed “unique” character…because there is neither weak nor diffuse evidence that, in parallel to Africa´s evolution, “something similar” could have happened in East Asia with the omnipresent H. erectus, since 250/300 ka ago…
ReplyDeleteVery interesting subject!...many of its topics were addressed, and also discussed, more than once on your blog.
Best regards
Marcelo
Thank you, Marcelo. I was, at one time, close-minded about the relationship between the Chinese fossils and the mainstream Homo sapiens out of Africa. But, the OOA theory seemed to be too neat, and the "replacement" of the earlier hominins too complete to be reasonable. Then we discovered the admixtures with Neanderthals, and we found a new human group in Asia, the Denisovans. Plus the Flores, Luzon, etc. people and now, the Chinese humans.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess that a better theory will be the outcome of all of these discoveries.