The earliest humans could have lived in what is now northern Botswana, close to the remains of an enormous lake. (From 2019) Via WIREDUK
In the last three decades, scientists have uncovered around half of the 20 known human ancestors. But when it comes to where the firstOne group of researchers, however, claim they’ve narrowed in on the exact region. Modern humans originated around 200,000 years ago in northern Botswana, according to new research published in the. The group narrowed down the spot where humans evolved to the the Makgadikgadi–Okavango palaeo-wetland, south of the Zambezi river.
They worked with a geologist and climate physicist to understand what the climate, land and geology was like at this time period, and found that there was a substantial population of L0 on the Zambezi river 200,000 years ago, and that multiple Khoe-San sub-lineages were the predominant human population in the world then.
However, some experts warn that any claims about the origins of humans must investigate the whole genome, as the mitochondria makes up a very small percentage of our genome, and only represents our direct maternal line, says Carina Schlebusch, associate professor of human evolution at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Eva Chan, one of the study’s authors and senior research officer of human comparative and prostate cancer genomics at the Garvan Institute, says the origins of our ancestors is a hotly debated topic, and with more data, the theories will change, “But all our evidence points to this palaeo-wetland as the birthplace of all humans today.”
“Nexus of populations spring up all over place – this study shows a really strong one around 200,000 years ago that have genetically survived in today’s human population, but there will be others.” But aside from mounting evidence to support a continent-wide origin theory, there’s another reason scientists are rejecting the theory that modern humans came from one place. The new paper relies on the assumption that the Khoe-San people have stayed in one place for hundreds of thousands of years.
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