Did Our Species Evolve in Subdivided Populations across Africa, and Why Does It Matter?

2018/07/11 by Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Mark Thomas, Andrea Manica +20 · 6 citations
Medicine · Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Zoonotic diseases and public health #Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.tree.2018.05.005

openalex publication_date 2018/07/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

We challenge the view that our species, Homo sapiens, evolved within a single population and/or region of Africa. The chronology and physical diversity of Pleistocene human fossils suggest that morphologically varied populations pertaining to the H. sapiens clade lived throughout Africa. Similarly, the African archaeological record demonstrates the polycentric origin and persistence of regionally distinct Pleistocene material culture in a variety of paleoecological settings. Genetic studies also indicate that present-day population structure within Africa extends to deep times, paralleling a paleoenvironmental record of shifting and fractured habitable zones. We argue that these fields support an emerging view of a highly structured African prehistory that should be considered in human evolutionary inferences, prompting new interpretations, questions, and interdisciplinary research directions.

Citations

• The environmental context for the origins of modern human diversity: A synthesis of regional variability in African climate 150,000–30,000 years ago
• Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia
• An African American Paternal Lineage Adds an Extremely Ancient Root to the Human Y Chromosome Phylogenetic Tree
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• Phylogeographic Patterns in Africa and High Resolution Delineation of Genetic Clades in the Lion (Panthera leo)
• Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East
• Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago
• Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure
• The Stone Age Archaeology of West Africa
• Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age

Cited by

• Beyond multiregional and simple out-of-Africa models of human evolution
• A dispersal of Homo sapiens from southern to eastern Africa immediately preceded the out-of-Africa migration
• Biocultural diversity in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Africa: Olduvai Hominid 1 (Tanzania) biological affinity and intentional body modification
• A Rare Deep-Rooting D0 African Y-Chromosomal Haplogroup and Its Implications for the Expansion of Modern Humans Out of Africa
• Recent African origin of modern humans [wikipedia]
• Sub-Saharan Africa [wikipedia]