Chapter 19, Problem 1TC

Summary Introduction

To determine:

The recent finding of three fossil skulls of Homo sapiens discovered in eastern Africa fill a gap between Homo sapiens skulls found in Africa and Israel and the skulls of archaic H. sapiens found in Ethiopia. Does this finding prove that the replacement model is correct. If not, what fossil evidence might yet be found to support the multiregional continuity hypothesis.

Introduction:

The African origin of modern humans is also called as ‘out of Africa’ theory and replacement hypothesis is the most dominant model explaining the origin and early migration of anatomically modern humans. This model proposes that all the modern non African populations have descended from populations of H. sapiens that left Africa that time. This model suggests that the origin of H. sapiens is of ‘single origin’.