Modern Humans, Origins of

Abstract

The origin and evolution of modern humans, their anatomy and behavior, is one of the most debated topics in evolutionary anthropology today and is crucial for understanding how and why modern humans look and behave the way they do. Although it is agreed that humans emerged from Africa around 200,000 years ago, debates still surround the identification of the ancestral species of modern humans and the extent to which archaic species contributed to the modern human genome (which has implications for the Out of Africa and multiregional hypotheses), the relationship between anatomical and behavioral modernity and how this affects the categorization of fossils as “modern human,” and the exact center of evolution within Africa (eastern or southern Africa). Only by drawing on a range of evidence from archaeology, paleoanthropology, paleontology, and genetic studies of both modern human populations and ancient DNA can the origin of modern humans be illuminated.