Question #4e985
1 Answer
So far as we can tell, our species Homo Sapiens Sapiens originated in Subsaharan Africa, and all human development prior to 70,000 years ago, originated there.
Explanation:
What we know of human evolution continually changes, especially as new discoveries are made in the fossil record. What we also know about the ecosystems that natured our ancestors continually changes. However, it appears that our particular species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, first appeared in Southern Africa somewhere around 125,000 years ago.
Africa was a 'population pump' as the world warmed and cooled over thousands of years. The Sahara might turn to grass land for a few thousand years, then revert to being a desert, and hominids that moved in would then be 'pumped' into Europe and Asia. While some examples of H. Sapiens Sapiens have been found outside of Africa, studies related to the Humane Genome Project suggest none of them survived.
The lasting human radiation from Africa that ended up with the settling of the entire world, seems to have occurred around 70-75,000 years ago, after a major disaster of some kind (probably a massive erruption of the Toba Volcano in Indonesia) reduced the total human population to between 1,000 and 10,000 individuals in Southern Africa. All of us are descended from them.
Relics from the Upper Paleolithic are largely confined to stone; but before the population radiation occured, humans in southern Africa were starting to make tiny bladelets out of stone, which may have been barbs on harpoons and fishing spears (early human site all seem to be coastal); they were also using red-ochre as a pigment, which suggest the beginning of symbolic behaviours, such as art and more sophisticated language.
With the human radiation out of Africa, a larger variety of ecosystems and contact with H. Neanderthalis and H. Denosovian (both of whom contributed DNA to all non-African populations), the tool kit and evidence of symbolic behaviours expanded enormously.
