Origins of Modern Humans 03 27 2014 Anatomically modern Homo sapiens Qafzeh Israel o 90 000 100 000 ya o 3 flexed Border Cave South Africa o 90 000 ya Klasies River Mouth South Africa o Occupied 130 000 60 000 ya o Maxillary fragments at 120 000 o better evidence at 90 000 ya H s s traits o Vertical forehead o Reduced Brow o High cranial vault with high maximum width o Thinner cranial bones o Less Prognathism o Reduced incisors o Distinct projecting chin Cro Magnon France 30 000 ya Associated with Upper Paleolithic tool industry Big game hunting Year round camps Greater tool inventory Origins of Modern Humans 03 27 2014 o bone tools and boiling stones Art o Venus figures o Cave paintings Origins Extreme Lascaux France 17 000 ya o Out of Africa Eve hypothesis Recent African Origins Population that evolved in Africa and spread out to replace everything else o Multiregional continuity Extreme o The truth lies between them Out of Africa Independent pockets evolve independently Based on analysis of modern human mtDNA Why use mtDNA o Only 16 500 base pairs o Maternal mother inheritance o Fast evolution o Selectively neutral mutations accrue mutations thru time no effect on function of mtDNA o Molecular clock Divergence traced back 200 000 ya 290 000 to 140 000 ya African sample was more variable thus older o Eve was from Africa Origins of Modern Humans 03 27 2014 Critique Why should the most variable population be the oldest o Genetic Drift vs Gene Flow Is the most parsimonious solution the correct solution o Maximum parsimony Common ancestor least mutations o More than one parsimonious solution How reliable is the Molecular clock o Depends in stochastically regular mutations o Works well over the long term more dicey in the short term Multiregional Continuity model Populations evolve in situ Based on morphological continuity in Asia Africa and Europe Example o Dali cheek bones v shaped notch on cheek bone o M3 agenesis 3rd molar doesn t develop o European sloping foreheads retro molar spaces facial proportions Out of Africa again and again Gene flow lattice