New Research Proves Single Origin Of Humans In Africa

  • Wanna Join? New users you can now register lightning fast using your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
2-0-Sixx

2-0-Sixx

Sicc OG
#1
May 13, 2002
49,944
47,801
113
44
Seattle
www.socialistworld.net
#1
ScienceDaily

New Research Proves Single Origin Of Humans In Africa

Science Daily — New research published in the journal Nature (19 July) has proved the single origin of humans theory by combining studies of global genetic variations in humans with skull measurements across the world. The research, at the University of Cambridge and funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), represents a final blow for supporters of a multiple origins of humans theory.

Competing theories on the origins of anatomically modern humans claim that either humans originated from a single point in Africa and migrated across the world, or different populations independently evolved from homo erectus to home sapiens in different areas.

The Cambridge researchers studied genetic diversity of human populations around the world and measurements of over 6,000 skulls from across the globe in academic collections. Their research knocks down one of the last arguments in favour of multiple origins. The new findings show that a loss in genetic diversity the further a population is from Africa is mirrored by a loss in variation in physical attributes.

Lead researcher, Dr Andrea Manica from the University's Department of Zoology, explained: "The origin of anatomically modern humans has been the focus of much heated debate. Our genetic research shows the further modern humans have migrated from Africa the more genetic diversity has been lost within a population.

"However, some have used skull data to argue that modern humans originated in multiple spots around the world. We have combined our genetic data with new measurements of a large sample of skulls to show definitively that modern humans originated from a single area in Sub-saharan Africa."

The research team found that genetic diversity decreased in populations the further away from Africa they were - a result of 'bottlenecks' or events that temporarily reduced populations during human migration. They then studied an exceptionally large sample of human skulls. Taking a set of measurements across all the skulls the team showed that not only was variation highest amongst the sample from south eastern Africa but that it did decrease at the same rate as the genetic data the further the skull was away from Africa.

To ensure the validity of their single origin evidence the researchers attempted to use their data to find non-African origins for modern humans. Research Dr Francois Balloux explains: "To test the alternative theory for the origin of modern humans we tried to find an additional, non-African origin. We found this just did not work. Our findings show that humans originated in a single area in Sub-Saharan Africa."
 
ParkBoyz

ParkBoyz

Sicc OG
#7
Aug 6, 2006
2,010
0
0
39
#7
ThaG said:
All they have to find now is where exactly in Africa the garden of Eden was
Click to expand...
Don't know, but references to a 70,000 year old Serpent god should be intriguing to say the least given that question.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa027&articleID=3FE89A86-E7F2-99DF-366D045A5BF3EAB1
Offerings to a Stone Snake Provide the Earliest Evidence of Religion

The discovery of carvings on a snake-shaped rock along with 70,000-year-old spearheads nearby has dramatically pushed back the earliest evidence for ritual behavior, or what could be called religion. The finding, which researchers have yet to formally publish, comes from a cave hidden in the Tsodilo Hills of Botswana, a mecca of sorts for the local people, who call it the Mountain of the Gods.

"It's very big news," says Sheila Coulson, an archaeologist at the University of Oslo in Norway and leader of the study. Prior to the discovery, researchers had identified signs of ritual practice going back at most 40,000 years from sites in Europe.

Researchers believe that anatomically modern humans emerged from East Africa perhaps 120,000 years ago. "The difficulty was always this incredible time lag between that occurrence and any more complex aspect of the culture other than just basic survival," Coulson says. Although some carved ornaments and wall markings from another African site are as old as the new find, they seem to have had no obvious ritual significance.

A chief of the local San people invited Coulson and her colleagues to study the cave in Tsodilo Hills. They were unprepared for what they found when they entered: a six-meter-long rock that bore a striking resemblance to a snake, including a mouthlike gash at the
end. "My first words I remember saying are, 'My god what is that?'" Coulson says. "I'd never seen anything like it."

Hundreds of small notches, widely spaced in some places and closer together in others, covered the rock. Entrants to the cave apparently made these markings to enhance the snake illusion by creating the impression of scales and movement [see picture below].
"When flickering light hits it, it very much looks like the snake is flexing," Coulson says. Snakes feature prominently in the traditions and the mythology of the San, sometimes called the Bushmen.

Although many of the carvings looked old, more reliable markers of the site's longevity lay buried in rock half a meter beneath the soft cave floor. In a one-meter-wide, two-meter-deep excavation right next to the snake, the researchers uncovered more than 100 multicolored spear points from a total of 13,000 man-made artifacts.

The tips closely resemble those found elsewhere in Africa that researchers have dated at up to 77,000 years old, Coulson says. Judging from the rare colors of the stone points and the pattern of fragments, people from far and wide likely brought them to the cave partially made and finished working them there, she explains.

Some of the stone tips seem to have been burned or smashed in what may have been a type of sacrifice. Of 22 tips made from red stone, all of them show cracks and faults consistent with exposure to high heat, Coulson says, and some were burned white. Other spearheads exhibit chips and marks that suggest someone had struck the finished tips dead-on, something that researchers have observed at sites in Siberia, she notes.

"You put it all together and clearly something very extraordinary is happening," says archaeologist and prehistoric religion specialist Neil Price, also at the University of Oslo, who was not part of the dig. "You have things occurring over a long period of time that do not have a functional explanation. There must be a whole complex of thinking behind these actions, and that in itself is exciting."
 
ParkBoyz

ParkBoyz

Sicc OG
#9
Aug 6, 2006
2,010
0
0
39
#9
^So some people are just slow and can't put two and two together.. Not even suggesting that it makes for a compelling case but any learned person knows what this implies by me posting it..
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#10
Jun 30, 2005
9,597
1,687
113
#10
yeah, we know what you imply and it is total nonsense because I am 100% sure it involves some sort of "divine interference":ermm:
 
ParkBoyz

ParkBoyz

Sicc OG
#11
Aug 6, 2006
2,010
0
0
39
#11
^Maybe, maybe not, it was put in the air for you to form your own evaluation. I'm sure you know nothing about African ritual practices and historical archaeology anyways tho.. All you do is doubt what you don't understand and defend what you do. You're simple-minded..
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#12
Jun 30, 2005
9,597
1,687
113
#12
ParkBoyz said:
^Maybe, maybe not, it was put in the air for you to form your own evaluation. I'm sure you know nothing about African ritual practices and historical archaeology anyways tho.. All you do is doubt what you don't understand and defend what you do. You're simple-minded..
Click to expand...
LOL

Show me an example where I doubt something I don't understand just because I don't understand it?

Show me an example where I defend a position despite the insufficiency of data, just because I am attached to it for some reason?

Do not speak unprepared, please


I do not have to know about any shitty african gods to be able to understand human evolution, mtDNA, Y-chromosome, SNPs and CNVs are more than enough
 
ParkBoyz

ParkBoyz

Sicc OG
#13
Aug 6, 2006
2,010
0
0
39
#13
ThaG said:
LOL



I do not have to know about any shitty african gods to be able to understand human evolution, mtDNA, Y-chromosome, SNPs and CNVs are more than enough
Click to expand...
Hahahaha! That was so redundant, you are truly an experienced fraud..
 
Y

Y-S

Sicc OG
#14
Dec 10, 2005
3,765
0
0
#14
Now what the researchers need to do -

How were the humans formed on Earth?

Or either we moved here........from another planet.

Too many theories.
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#16
Jun 30, 2005
9,597
1,687
113
#16
Y-S said:
Now what the researchers need to do -

How were the humans formed on Earth?

Or either we moved here........from another planet.

Too many theories.
Click to expand...
The first is the much more parsimonious explanation - if we "came from another planet", why are we so close genetically to all other organisms

We know pretty well how we were "formed" here - we evolved from other organisms. How exactly we evolve is something the fusion of genomics and evo-devo will tell us
 
H

Hemp

Sicc OG
#18
Sep 5, 2005
1,248
2
0
#18
ThaG said:
The first is the much more parsimonious explanation - if we "came from another planet", why are we so close genetically to all other organisms
Click to expand...
you cannot rule what you ruled out because you dont know what the genetics of creatures from outer space are. Who knows? we might be more closely related to them than animals on earth.
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#19
Jun 30, 2005
9,597
1,687
113
#19
Hemp said:
you cannot rule what you ruled out because you dont know what the genetics of creatures from outer space are. Who knows? we might be more closely related to them than animals on earth.
Click to expand...
do you know the meaning of the word parsimonious :ermm:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom