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The Out of Africa (OOA) or African Replacement Hypothesis is a well-supported theory that argues that every living human being is descended from a small group of Homo sapiens (abbreviated Hss) individuals in Africa, who then dispersed into the wider world meeting and displacing earlier forms such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. Early major proponents of this theory were led by British paleontologist Chris Stringer and in direct opposition to scholars supporting the multiregional hypothesis, which argued that Hss evolved several times from Homo erectus in several regions. The Out of Africa theory was bolstered in the early 1990s by research on mitochondrial DNA studies by Allan Wilson and Rebecca Cann which suggested that all humans ultimately descended from one female: the Mitochondrial Eve. Today, the vast majority of scholars have accepted that human beings evolved in Africa and migrated outward. However, recent evidence has shown that some sexual interaction between Hss and Denisovans and Neanderthals occurred, although at present their contribution to Homo sapiens DNA is considered fairly minor.
Probably the most influential site for paleontologists' most recent change in understanding evolutionary processes was the 430,000-year-old Homo heidelbergensis site of Sima de los Huesos in Spain. At this site, a large community of hominins was found to encompass a wider range of skeletal morphology than was previously considered within one species. That has led to a reassessment of species in general, and what scholars should call the species identified within the site is still under review. /p> A few of the archaeological sites associated with early Hss remains in Africa include: Jebel Irhoud (Morocco). The oldest known Hss site in the world to date is Jebel Irhoud, in Morocco, where the skeletal remains of five archaic Homo sapiens have been found alongside Middle Stone Age tools. At 350,000-280,000 years old, the five hominids represent the best-dated evidence of an early 'pre-modern' phase in Homo sapiens evolution. The human fossils at Irhoud include a partial skull and lower jaw, which although they retain some archaic features such as an elongated and low braincase, are thought to be more similar to Hss skulls found at Laetoli in Tanzania and Qafzeh in Israel. Stone tools at the site are Middle Stone Age in age, and the assemblage includes Levallois flakes, scrapers, and unifacial points. Animal bone at the site shows evidence of human modification, and charcoal indicating likely controlled use of fire. Omo Kibish (Ethiopia) contained the partial skeleton of an Hss who died ~195,000 years ago, alongside Levallois flakes, blades, core-trimming elements, and pseudo-Levallois points. Bouri (Ethiopia) is located within the Middle Awash study area of East Africa and includes four archaeological and paleontological-bearing members dated between 2.5 million and 160,000 years ago. The Upper Herto Member (160,000 years BP) contained three hominin crania identified as Hss, associated with Middle Stone Age Acheulean transition tools, including hand axes , cleavers, scrapers, Levallois flake tools, cores, and blades. Although not considered Hss because of its age, Bouri's Herto Lower Member (260,000 years ago) contains later Acheulean artifacts including finely made bifaces and Levallois flakes; no hominid remains were found within the Lower Member but it will likely be reevaluated given the results at Jebel Irhoud.
Scholars largely agree that our modern species (Homo sapiens) originated in East Africa by 195-160,000 years ago, although those dates are clearly undergoing revision today. The earliest known pathway out of Africa probably occurred during Marine Isotope Stage 5e, or between 130,000-115,000 years ago, along the Nile Corridor and into the Levant, evidenced by Middle Paleolithic sites at Qazfeh and Skhul. That migration (sometimes confusingly called "Out of Africa 2" because it was discovered more recently than the next) is generally regarded as a "failed dispersal" because only a handful of Homo sapiens sites have been identified as being this old outside of Africa. However, fossil evidence of any kind this old is pretty rare and it may be too early to completely rule that out. A later pulse from northern Africa, which was recognized at least thirty years ago, occurred from about 65-40,000 years ago [MIS 4 or early 3], through Arabia: that one, scholars believe, eventually led to the human colonization of Europe and Asia, and the eventual replacement of Neanderthals in Europe. The fact that these two pulses occurred is largely undebated today. A third and increasingly convincing human migration is the southern dispersal hypothesis, which argues that an additional wave of colonization occurred between those two better-known pulses. Growing archaeological and genetic evidence supports the existence of this earlier southern route into South Asia.
Over the past decade or so, evidence has been piling up that although pretty much all paleontologists agree that humans did evolve in Africa and move out from there, we did meet other human species--specifically Denisovans and Neanderthals--as we moved out into the world. All living humans are still one species--but it is now undeniable that we share differing levels of the admixture of species which developed and died out in Eurasia. Those species are no longer with us--except as tiny pieces of DNA. The paleontological community is still somewhat divided on what that means to this ancient debate: John Hawks (2010) argues "we are all multiregionalists now"; but Chris Stringer recently (2014) disagreed: "we are all out-ofAfricanists who accept some multi-regional contributions".
Multiregional Theory Out of Africa Theory Southern Dispersal Route
There is an enormous amount of scientific literature on the Out of Africa model, and the following is a partial bibliography covering the last few years. Árnason Ú. 2016. The Out of Africa hypothesis and the ancestry of recent humans: Cherchez la femme (et l'homme). Gene 585(1):9-12. Boivin N, Fuller DQ, Dennell R, Allaby R, and Petraglia MD. 2013. Human dispersal across diverse environments of Asia during the Upper Pleistocene. Quaternary International 300:32-47. d'Alpoim Guedes J, Bestor TC, Carrasco D, Flad R, Fosse E, Herzfeld M, Lamberg-Karlovsky CC, Lewis CM, Liebmann M, Meadow R et al. 2013. Is Poverty in Our Genes? A Critique of Ashraf and Galor, “The ‘Out of Africa’ Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development,” American Economic Review (Forthcoming) Current Anthropology 54(1):71-79. Groucutt HS, Petraglia MD, Bailey G, Scerri EML, Parton A, Clark-Balzan L, Jennings RP, Lewis L, Blinkhorn J, Drake NA et al. 2015. Rethinking the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 24(4):149-164. Hölzchen E, Hertler C, Timm I, and Lorig F. 2016. Evaluation of Out of Africa hypotheses by means of agent-based modeling. Quaternary International 413:78-90. Hublin J-J, Ben-Ncer A, Bailey SE, Freidline SE, Neubauer S, Skinner MM, Bergmann I, Le Cabec A, Benazzi S, Harvati K et al. 2017. New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature 546(7657):289-292. Lohse K, and Frantz LAF. 2014. Neandertal Admixture in Eurasia Confirmed by Maximum-Likelihood Analysis of Three Genomes. Genetics 196(4):1241-1251. 10.1534/genetics.114.162396 Marean CW. 2015. An Evolutionary Anthropological Perspective on Modern Human Origins. Annual Review of Anthropology 44(1):533-556. Reyes-Centeno H, Ghirotto S, Détroit F, Grimaud-Hervé D, Barbujani G, and Harvati K. 2014. Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(20):72487253. Reyes-Centeno H, Hubbe M, Hanihara T, Stringer C, and Harvati K. 2015. Testing modern human out-of-Africa dispersal models and implications for modern human origins. Journal of Human Evolution 87:95-106. Richter D, Grün R, Joannes-Boyau R, Steele TE, Amani F, Rué M, Fernandes P, Raynal J-P, Geraads D, Ben-Ncer A et al. 2017. The age of the hominin fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and the origins of the Middle Stone Age. Nature 546(7657):293-296. Stringer C, and Galway-Witham J. 2017. Palaeoanthropology: On the origin of our species. Nature 546(7657):212-214. Spinapolice E, and Garcea EA. 2013. The Aterian from the Jebel Gharbi (Libya): New Technological Perspectives from North Africa. African Archaeological Review 30(2):169-194. doi: 10.1007/s10437-013-9135-2 Stringer C. 2014. Why we are not all multiregionalists now. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 29(5):248-251. Verna C, Texier P-J, Rigaud J-P, Poggenpoel C, and Parkington J. 2013. The Middle Stone Age human remains from Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape, South Africa). Journal of Archaeological Science 40(9):3532-3541.
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