2019/09/10 by Aurélien Mounier, Marta Mìrazón Lahr · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Psychology · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Primate Behavior and Ecology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11213-w
openalex publication_date 2019/09/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The origin of Homo sapiens remains a matter of debate. The extent and geographic patterning of morphological diversity among Late Middle Pleistocene (LMP) African hominins is largely unknown, thus precluding the definition of boundaries of variability in early H. sapiens and the interpretation of individual fossils. Here we use a phylogenetic modelling method to predict possible morphologies of a last common ancestor of all modern humans, which we compare to LMP African fossils (KNM-ES 11693, Florisbad, Irhoud 1, Omo II, and LH18). Our results support a complex process for the evolution of H. sapiens, with the recognition of different, geographically localised, populations and lineages in Africa - not all of which contributed to our species' origin. Based on the available fossils, H. sapiens appears to have originated from the coalescence of South and, possibly, East-African source populations, while North-African fossils may represent a population which introgressed into Neandertals during the LMP.