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Where, when and why did Homo sapiens originate?
Dr Alice Leplongeon
alice.leplongeon@kuleuven.be
F0YT9a – 2021
Galerie de l’Homme du Musée de l’Homme, Paris © MNHN – J-C. Domenech
Homo sapiens
Linnaeus, 1758 Carl von Linné
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19th century
Development of craniometric
studies
Blumenbach, 1795, De generis humani varietate nativa
19th century
Development of craniometric
studies
Quatrefages and Hamy, 1882 Broca, 1871
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Patterns in human
genetic diversity
Serre and Pääbo, 2004
A morphological definition of Homo sapiens?
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Evolution: some vocabulary
Phylogenies, clades & lineages, last common ancestors
Plesiomorphy, apomorphy
© University of California Museum of Paleontology's Understanding Evolution (http://evolution.berkeley.edu)
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Homo sapiens
Linnaeus, 1758 Carl von Linné
Homo sapiens
“For a species that is both narcissistic
and inquisitive, Homo sapiens has so
far done a remarkably poor job of
defining itself as a morphological entity.”
Tattersall and Schwartz, 2008
Sawyer and Maley, 2005
Left: reconstruction of a Neanderthal; right: Homo sapiens
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Homo sapiens vs Homo neanderthalensis
Wood, 2005 Sawyer and Maley, 2005
Left: reconstruction of a Neanderthal; right: Homo sapiens
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Homo sapiens vs Homo neanderthalensis
García-Martínez et al., 2020
Blue: Homo sapiens; Red: Homo neanderthalensis; both at ca. 1.5 yo
Sawyer and Maley, 2005
Left: reconstruction of a Neanderthal; right: Homo sapiens
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Homo sapiens vs Homo neanderthalensis
hairymuseummatt (original photo),
DrMikeBaxter (derivative work)
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File
:Sapiens_neanderthal_comparison_en_bla
ckbackground.png)Sapiens neanderthal
comparison en blackbackground“,
Wood, 2005 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/2.0/legalcode
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Homo sapiens vs Homo neanderthalensis
Neubauer et al., 2018
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Homo sapiens vs Homo neanderthalensis
15
At the origins of Homo sapiens
16
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17
Homo sapiens: when and where?
Hypotheses for the evolution of Homo sapiens
(a) Recent African Origin
(b) African hybridization and Replacement
model
(c) Assimilation model
(d) Multiregional Evolution model
Stringer, 2002
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Homo sapiens – A Recent African Origin?
© University of California Museum of
Paleontology's Understanding
Evolution
Cann et al., 1987 (http://evolution.berkeley.edu)
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Homo sapiens: when?
Prüfer et al., 2017
Hoffelder et al., 2021
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At the origins of Homo sapiens – the fossil record
Stringer, 2016; Galway-Witham & Stringer, 2018
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Jebel Irhoud, Morocco
Irhoud 10, Morocco Early
MSA
Date TL : 315 +/- 34 kyr
Richter et al., 2017 Hublin et al., 2017
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Jebel Irhoud, Morocco
Irhoud 10, Morocco Early
MSA
Date TL : 315 +/- 34 kyr
Irhoud 1 and 2, Stringer, 2016
Hublin et al., 2017
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Jebel Irhoud, Morocco
Irhoud 10,
Hublin et al.,
2017 Irhoud 1 and 2, Stringer, 2016
PCA facial shape PCA endocranial shape
24
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Jebel Irhoud, Morocco
Irhoud 10,
Hublin et al.,
2017 Irhoud 1 and 2, Stringer, 2016
PCA external vault shape
PCA endocranial shape
25
At the origins of Homo sapiens – the fossil record
Hublin et al., 2017
Stringer, 2016; Galway-Witham & Stringer, 2018
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Eastern African early Homo sapiens fossils
Homo erectus
Omo 1 and 2, Stringer, 2016; ca. 195 ka
Fleagle et al., 2008
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Homo sapiens
Neubauer et al., 2018
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At the origins of Homo sapiens – the fossil record
- Very fragmentary record
- Showing the existence of morphologically distinct
populations at the end of the Middle Pleistocene in
Africa
- No simple linear relationship between an ancestral
morphology and that of H. sapiens
Stringer, 2016; Galway-Witham & Stringer, 2018
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Can we pinpoint to a single birthplace for modern humans?
Scerri et al., 2018
Bergstrom et al., 2021
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Who was the Last Common Ancestor of both
Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis /
what did they look like?
Homo heidelbergensis
Broken Hill, ca. 250-
Homo neanderthalensis, Bodo, ca. 600 ka 300 ka Nanjing, ca. 400 ka
60-40 ka
Homo antecessor, ca.
850 ka Irhoud 1 Herto Pataud, ca. 20 ka
Lacruz et al., 2019
32
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Who was the Last Common Ancestor of both
Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis?
Stringer, 2016; Galway-Witham & Stringer, 2018; Bergstrom et al., 2021
33
Who was the Last Common Ancestor of both
Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis?
- Genetic ancestry of the Homo sapiens lineage ca. 300-500 ka,
and impossible to pinpoint to a specific fossil from that time to
be in the lineage of Homo sapiens
- Current evidence origins of the morphology of Homo
sapiens as we know it between 300 and 100 ka in Africa, with a
genetic date for the last common ancestor for all living human
populations ca. 200-150 ka.
Stringer, 2016; Galway-Witham & Stringer, 2018; Bergstrom et al., 2021
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At the origins of ‘Modern Human behaviour’
35
Behavioural variability in the Middle Stone Age
“Behavioural modernity”?
(see also Henshilwood and Marean, 2002)
McBrearty & Brooks, JHE, 2000
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The MSA/LSA transition: A revolution?
37
Behavioural variability in the Middle Stone Age
and early Later Stone Age
After Will et al. 2019
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Neanderthals and Moderns – how different did they
behave?
39
Expansion and dispersals of Homo sapiens
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Mirazón Lahr, 2016
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
How many OOAs? Via which routes? Timing?
• Two main ‘routes’: North-
Eastern Africa & Bab el-
Mandab
• Genetic data: main dispersal
event(s) ca. 50-60 ka
• Fossil and archaeological
data: anterior OOAs from
populations that did not
contribute to living
populations?
42
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Bergstrom et al., 2021
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Bar-Yosef and Vandermeersch, 1993
Skhul and Qafzeh Caves, Israel
ca. 90-120 ka
Vandermeersch and Bar-Yosef, 2019
Reconstitution of the Qafzeh double
b i l
44
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Homo sapiens Homo Homo sapiens
(Manot Cave, neanderthalensis (ca. 90-130 ka)
?
Hershkowitz et al., (ca. 75-50 ka,
2015; ca. 55 ka) e.g., Kebara)
Early MP
Shea, 2008
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Misliya 1 hemimaxilla,
Misliya Cave, Israel,
Ca. 177-194 ka
Associated with Early Middle
Palaeolithic layers
Hershkovitz et al., 201
46
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Homo sapiens Homo Homo sapiens Homo sapiens
(Manot Cave, neanderthalensis (ca. 90-130 ka) (ca. 177-194 ka,
Hershkowitz et al., (ca. 75-50 ka, Misliya)
2015; ca. 55 ka) e.g., Kebara)
Early MP
Shea, 2008
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
FAY-NE1 rock shelter,
Jebel Faya,
United Arab Emirates
MIS 5 (OSL)
“Technological patterns at FAY-
NE1 show greater similarities with
East and northeast Africa than
with other sites known in Arabia.
On the basis of these affinities and
the contemporaneous presence of
AMH in East and northeast Africa,
we suggest that assemblage C
occupation is attributed to AMH
expanding out of Africa during
early MIS 5.”
Armitage et al., 2011
48
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Scerri et al., 2014
• MIS 5
• Some Northern Arabian
assemblages – similarities
with NE Africa
• Others different from both
other Arabian assemblages
and NE African
• “Combination of African
connections and Arabian
developments, probably of
H. sapiens” Complex
Late Pleistocene
demography in this area
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Al Wusta 1;
Al Wusta – edge lake
Nefud Desert, Saudia Arabia
Intermediate hand phalanx
Ca. 85 ka
Associated with MP artefacts
50
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Apidima 1,
Apidima Cave A, Greece,
ca. 210 ka (U/Th)
Harvati et al., 2019
51
Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
• Earliest MP in the area ca. 100 ka
• Appears as a clear change from Late Acheulean
• No human fossils and few well-dated sites
• Current evidence suggests that MP in the region // early Modern
Human dispersal
Blinkhorn and Petraglia, 2017
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Fuyan Cave, Daoxian
Southern China
Between 80 and 120 ka
Liu et al., 2015
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Michel et al., 2016
Sun et al., 2021
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Westaway et al., 2017
55
Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Madjedbebe rock shelter,
Australia
Evidence for human occupation
(in situ hearth and artefacts)
ca. 65 ka
Clarkson et al., 2017
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Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
57
Out of Africa of Homo sapiens
Bergstrom et al., 2021
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Mirazón Lahr, 2016
59
Current evidence frequent ‘archaic admixture’
Bergstrom et al., 2021
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Homo sapiens
• Bergström, A., Stringer, C., Hajdinjak, M., Scerri, E. M. L., and Skoglund, P.
(2021). Origins of modern human ancestry. Nature 590, 229–237.
doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03244-5.
• Hollfelder, N., Breton, G., Sjödin, P., and Jakobsson, M. (2021). The deep
population history in Africa. Human Molecular Genetics 30, R2–R10.
doi:10.1093/hmg/ddab005.
• Mirazón Lahr, M. (2016). The shaping of human diversity: filters, boundaries and
transitions. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 371, 20150241. doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0241.
• Stringer, C. (2016). The origin and evolution of Homo sapiens. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 371, 20150237.
doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0237.
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