homophile sapiens evolved about 200 - 150,000 years ago in Africa , but our tarradiddle as a metal money stretches back much further than that with other human ancestors . And the organic evolution of Homo sapiens is itself a tangled tale , full of unanswered interrogation and gothic menage melodrama . Here are a few facts you may not sleep with about the human evolutionary story .
Image from the moving-picture show Quest for Fire
1 . former human beings result Africa over 1 million days ago
Most of us have heard the account about how Homo sapiens poured out of Africa into Europe and Asia start about 80,000 years ago . What you may not realize is that our ancestor , Homo erectus , had been taking the same routes out of Africa on and off for over 1 million years . In fact , when Homo sapiens allow Africa , they would have receive other humans who depend very much like themselves – these would be the descendent of the vulgar ancestor we share with Neanderthals , as well as the descendents of Homo erectus . All of these people were early world . And they had been wandering around Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of year .
https://gizmodo.com/how-did-humans-really-evolve-5774949
2 . man have incredibly low genetic diversity
Humans are among the least genetically various ape , mostly because we all appear to be descended from a small group of humans who lived in East Africa . To describe genetic variety , universe geneticists use a measure called “ effective population size . ” Put extremely simply , effective universe size is how many people you would need to reproduce the transmitted multifariousness of our full population . For world , this phone number hovers around 15,000 individuals , which is pretty insane when you view our actual population size is 7 billion . As a head of comparison , some species of mouse have an effective population size of 733,000 .
3 . You may be part Neanderthal
This is pretty widely known , but it bears repeat . late hereditary analysis of Neanderthal os let on that there are some oafish genes that have made their way into New non - African populations . This suggests that when Cro - Magnons entered Europe , the Middle East and Asia , they in all probability had kid with the local Neanderthal population . We are all one happy human family .
https://gizmodo.com/a-long-anthropological-debate-may-be-on-the-cusp-of-res-512864731
4 . The human population crashed about 80,000 year ago
Something mysterious happened about 80,000 years ago that reduced humanity ’s effective universe size of it . If you echo , the effective universe size of it is not the same affair as the actual population size – it ’s a mensuration of transmitted diversity . So basically , our genetic diversity shrank by a draw 80,000 years ago . There are a lot of theory about why this might be , ranging from an apocalyptic disaster due to the bang of the Toba vent , to something more terrene like interbreeding among small populations .
5 . Humans navigated the Native American ocean in gravy holder 50,000 days ago
Homo sapiens arrived in Australia some 50,000 years ago . How the hell did they get there from the shores of Africa ? They used small boats , belike whip together out of reed . ( in all probability they were exchangeable tothe boat that brought us from Asia to the Americasover 17,000 year ago . ) It was the Paleolithic equivalent of flying to the lunation in a tin can . It should n’t have worked , but it did . Using those small boats , we cross the Pacific many metre and populated an entire continent .
https://gizmodo.com/15-000-year-old-campsite-in-texas-challenges-convention-5785151
6 . man sapiens has only had a civilisation for less than 50,000 years
While we ’re mouth about all the cool things that happened 50,000 years ago , it ’s worth noting that many anthropologists now trust too soon humansprobably did not spring up what we would recognize as culture until around that clip . This is awe-inspiring when you consider that the“mitochondrial Eve ” theorysuggests that we are all settle from one East African cleaning lady who lived about 200 - 150,000 years ago . open that Homo sapiens evolved around the time of mitochondrial Eve , that means our species hung around for a really long metre before we developed awesome thing like artwork , symbolical communicating , ornaments , and fancy bone tools . for sure , pre - cultural humans had jolly sophisticated toolkits and fire , but we have very little evidence that they had art and symbolic communication , which are the cornerstones of that affair we call “ finish . ” Some anthropologists trust that we did n’t even invent language until that ethnic burst , but this is almost impossible to prove one way or the other .
https://gizmodo.com/how-mitochondrial-eve-connected-all-humanity-and-rewrot-5878996
7 . Homo sapiens has always used fire as a tool
Homo sapiens evolvedafter our ascendent tamed fervor and bulge out making tools . This sounds simple , but when you start to think about it , the implications are profound . As a metal money , we have never existed without one of the most important tools for build a civilization : tone down fire . As a mintage , we are carry creature drug user and attack manufacturer . Some might even say that signify we were born bionic woman , because our mintage has always been augment by the invention of by artificial means made fire and tools . Whoa .
8 . Homo sapiens is still evolve apace
Good news , everyone ! Homo sapiens is still acquire – and one day our progeny will be as dissimilar from us as we are from Homo erectus . Evolutionary biologists have sequestrate a few surface area of the human genome that are under rapid selection . That means genetic mutation in those cistron are spreading rapidly throughout the population . Many of these mutations are related to mastermind size and evolution , andothers have to do with our ability to tolerate certain kinds of foods ( like dairy ) and disease resistance . This has lead some biologists to wonder whether we are evolving to be more level-headed , but it is not yet clear whether the evolutionary changes we are see have anything to do with news — particularly since our brain are actually wince . Still , it ’s good to love that that the genes which ensure one of my preferent anatomical systems is still evolving .
Annalee Newitz is the editor in chief - in - head of io9 . She is also the writer ofScatter , Adapt and call back : How homo Will Survive a Mass Extinction .
anthropologyArchaeologyEvolutionGeneticsHuman evolutionScience
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