Assignment 4

Daniel Fagerlie

The article and video presents evidences to support the Recent African

Origins Hypothesis (RAOH), where anatomically modern humans spread out about

100 to 200 kya from Africa.

The Herto skulls, found in Ethiopia, dated between 154 to 160 kya,

resembled modern humans, with small faces and large cranial vault. They are,

however, more robust and a bit longer, but are considered to be the earliest form

of modern human. These fall within the time period of RAOH.

In the multiregional hypothesis, it is believed that Neandertals were the

ancestors of the peoples of Europe, however, this would be backed up by DNA

comparisons, which is not the case. A study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of

Neandertals shows differing mutations compared to 2,000 people from around the

world, meaning Neandertals are not closer to modern Europeans than other

groups.

Instead it was found that early modern humans (Cro-Magnons) dated

between 23,000 and 24,720 ya, were nearly identical to modern humans, where

the Neandertals were quite different from a similar time period. This supports the

RAOH, because the Multiregional hypothesis would have had the Cro-Magnons

sharing a lot more markers to the Neandertals, believing they evolved from them.

The study of mtDNA of the people in New York, also shows a common

ancestry. People from Greek, Asia, and African American show markers coming

from Africa. Even the isolated Aeta people of the Philippines show markers coming

from Africa. They probably migrated near the last ice age when the ocean levels

were lower, and they could walk across land to the island.