Another nail in the coffin of the multiple-origins theory?

BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
C Wills

Abstract

While mitochondrial sequences can be used to probe the time and place of the mitochondrial 'Eve,' nuclear genes can be used to ask a slightly different question: when did humans (members of the genus Homo) or their hominid precursors (the hominids) first leave Africa and fan out over Asia and Europe? If they did so recently, it seems likely that there was a recent African origin of our species, Homo sapiens, rather than multiple origins in various parts of the Old World. A recent paper uses minisatellite data to make the argument that the departure from Africa happened very recently indeed. An alternative explanation for the data is that there was no single and irreversible departure from Africa, but that some peoples migrated back and forth between Africa and the rest of the Old World over the last few tens of thousands of years. For this and other reasons, putting a single date on the farewell to Africa remains problematical.

References

Mar 11, 1992·Nucleic Acids Research·N J RoyleA J Jeffreys
Apr 1, 1992·Scientific American·A G Thorne, M H Wolpoff
Sep 27, 1991·Science·L VigilantA C Wilson
Nov 21, 1991·Nature·A J JeffreysD G Monckton
Nov 16, 1995·Nature·W HuangW Rink
Aug 11, 1995·Science·E CarbonellX P Rodríguez
Feb 25, 1994·Science·C C Swisher Widiasmoro
Jun 1, 1996·Nature Genetics·J A ArmourA J Jeffreys
Aug 1, 1995·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Christopher Wills
Jun 1, 1996·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Christopher Wills

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