New twist on out-of-Africa theory

[Ayinde]

Judy Skatssoon
ABC Science Online
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1153697.htm

Wednesday, 14 July 2004

Homo erectus, the species thought to be the first to leave Africa for Eurasia in the out-of-Africa model of human origin Early humans made love, not war, according to new DNA analysis presented at a genetics conference that gives a new twist on the out-of-Africa hypothesis of human origins.

U.S. researcher Professor Alan Templeton of Washington University, St Louis, debunks the prevailing version of the out-of-Africa hypothesis, which says early humans migrated from Africa and wiped out Eurasian populations.

Instead, they bred, he told the Genetics Society of Australia's annual conference in Melbourne this week.

Templeton said his evidence didn't support the so-called replacement theory in which African hominids caused the extinction of other Homo species.

Instead, he said his analysis of the human genome showed prehistoric gene-swapping created a single evolutionary lineage beginning in Africa and ending where we are today.

He looked at mitochondrial DNA, as well as DNA on a range of chromosomes including X and Y.

"The genetic legacy of current humans is predominantly of African origin," he said.

Templeton is the first to suggest expansion out of Africa occurred in three waves: 2 million years ago, 800,000 years ago and 100,000 years ago.

The alternative view suggests that expansion out of Africa occurred twice and caused the genetic extinction of existing populations, with the colonisers later diversifying into separate races.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1153697.htm


200,000 year-old fossil found

Archeologists from the National Museums of Kenya on Sunday evening excavated a 200,000 old homo-sapien fossil at Archers Post in Samburu District.

The team, which excavated the fossil from the Ewaso Nyiro River bed, also discovered archaeological artefacts of modern times such as stone tools and pottery.

The two-week excavation exercise was led by Nasser Malit, a palaeanthropologist who is also a PhD student in skeleton biology and human evolution at State University of New York.

http://www.eastandard.net/headlines/news13070417.htm