- Feb 9, 2001
- 7,136
- 2,071
"The Real Eve pieces together genetic and archaeological evidence to trace the migration of modern humans throughout the world. New findings reveal how our ancestors left Africa as one group via a southern route to what is modern day Yemen some 80,000 years ago. Now, climatological clues also suggest that migration into Europe also took place later than previously believed. These and other discoveries are rewriting the history of humankind.
The greatest journey ever undertaken left behind a trail of unanswered questions: How did our species arise and spread around the globe to become the most dominant creature on the planet? Part of the answer came two decades ago, when scientists stunned the world with the finding, based on genetic research, that all humans alive today can claim as a common ancestor a woman who lived in Africa some 150,000 years ago — dubbed, inevitably, "Eve." But while the notion of an African origin of the human family has grown to be accepted by most scientists, the details of how Eve's ancestors swept out of Africa to populate the rest of the world have remained murky.
Now a team of scientists claim that, based on research on the ancient climate, findings in archaeology and a new, clearer genetic picture of how the human family tree has branched over the eons, the ancient itinerary of the human diaspora can finally be pieced together. It is an epic story of escape from starvation, glaciers and volcanoes and braving shark-infested waters in flimsy rafts. And like any good tale, it has a surprise ending: Contrary to established thinking, it appears that our human ancestors took a more southerly route out of Africa, traveling east across the Red Sea into what is now Yemen, and then through India and all the way to the far reaches of Australia, before they swung up into Europe. "There was only one migration out of Africa," says Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University, who is a leading proponent of this new synthesis of our species's incredible journey. "They couldn't go north — that was blocked by a desert — so they had to go south."
Read more about this at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/realeve/interactive/interactive/html and tell us what you think!
Peace,
Queenie
The greatest journey ever undertaken left behind a trail of unanswered questions: How did our species arise and spread around the globe to become the most dominant creature on the planet? Part of the answer came two decades ago, when scientists stunned the world with the finding, based on genetic research, that all humans alive today can claim as a common ancestor a woman who lived in Africa some 150,000 years ago — dubbed, inevitably, "Eve." But while the notion of an African origin of the human family has grown to be accepted by most scientists, the details of how Eve's ancestors swept out of Africa to populate the rest of the world have remained murky.
Now a team of scientists claim that, based on research on the ancient climate, findings in archaeology and a new, clearer genetic picture of how the human family tree has branched over the eons, the ancient itinerary of the human diaspora can finally be pieced together. It is an epic story of escape from starvation, glaciers and volcanoes and braving shark-infested waters in flimsy rafts. And like any good tale, it has a surprise ending: Contrary to established thinking, it appears that our human ancestors took a more southerly route out of Africa, traveling east across the Red Sea into what is now Yemen, and then through India and all the way to the far reaches of Australia, before they swung up into Europe. "There was only one migration out of Africa," says Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University, who is a leading proponent of this new synthesis of our species's incredible journey. "They couldn't go north — that was blocked by a desert — so they had to go south."
Read more about this at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/realeve/interactive/interactive/html and tell us what you think!
Peace,
Queenie