(June 13, 2011 at 5:10 pm)Minimalist Wrote:(June 13, 2011 at 2:50 am)Ziggystardust Wrote: Archaeology and Paleontology gives us an incomplete picture, because very little gets preserved in the archeological and fossil record.
The genetic record on the other hand is much more complete and it shows modern humans are descended from a group of humans who lived in East Africa. Also everybody outside Africa is descended from one band of migrants who left Africa, with only minimal intermarriage with the hominid species which they replaced.
That's the theory which is now under attack, Zig.
How so the minimalist? So far genetic analysis shows that Asians and Europeans have around 2.5% Neanderthal DNA, while the Paupa New Guineans have 4.8% Denisovan (The recently discovered Asian Cousin of Neanderthals) DNA. Apart from that small amount of intermarriage with both Neanderthals and Denisovans, modern humans outside Africa are descended from a migration which occurred no more than 125,000 years ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/scienc...estor.html
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