Testing Modern Human Out-of-Africa Dispersal Models Using Dental Nonmetric Data

Abstract

The mode and timing of the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa and into Eurasia has important implications for the genetic and phenotypic structure of extant human populations. However, no consensus exists on the number, geographic route, and chronology of dispersal events. In this paper, we review competing dispersal models and evaluate their spatial and temporal predictions against geographical distances between population samples and measures of population differentiation derived from nonmetric dental data. The implications of our results for the modern human expansion into Asia are discussed.