The study for human evolution has gone a long way and we, as a species, are no longer in the dark on how we came to be, where did we come from, and what is our specific role in the environment. In recent years, anthropologists are able to discover remains of human ancestors, solved evolutionary mysteries such as what exactly happened to Neanderthals, and was able to push back the age of the earliest member of the human species.
These scientific breakthroughs just proved how little and how wrong we are with the previous notions of our origins. In the previous decades, it was a common thought that the first Homo sapiens evolved in East Africa 200,000 years ago and remained there for the next 140,000 years and went out to live in Europe and Asia 60,000 years ago colonizing areas where Neanderthals rule. However, new discoveries disprove these claims stating that the first human species appeared earlier and in different parts of the world not only in Africa. Anthropologists also discovered that instead of replacing older species, Homo sapiens interbred with them.
AN OVERVIEW OF HOW WE CHANGED OUR VIEW OF OUR ORIGINS
One of the recent discoveries involves a set of bones unearthed in the Jebel Irhoud region of Morocco. These bones belong to a species which loved 315,000 years ago -- roughly 100,000 years older than the previously considered as the oldest modern human found in Ethiopia. This same species was found in North Africa which automatically states that the earliest human species are not exclusively occurring in one part of the continent alone. According to Jean-Jacques Hublin, leader of the expedition in Morocco, there is no such thing as a "garden of Eden" in Africa where humans exclusively originated.
Back in 2018, a team of researchers suggested that Homo sapiens must have evolved simultaneously all over the continent and that none of these groups looked identical at first but are definitely genetically related. Hence, early humans in Africa probably became similar -- probably in features and behavior -- over time.
However, modern genetic analyses would suggest that the anatomically modern human species may have originated in Botswana. In a study published in October of last year, it is said that humans today descended from a 200,000-year-old woman discovered in Botswana. This claim was the result of the analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of the discovered fossil. This particular finding supports the theory that the modern ancestors of humans migrated out of Africa and then populated the world.
DNA sequencing has helped scientists in learning how human ancestors came to be. Mostly, these DNA genomes are harvested from bones that are excavated. Last December, anthropologists were able to extract DNA from a piece of 5,700-year-old chewing gum and the discoveries were astounding. For instance, anthropologists were able to determine who chewed the 2-centimeter birch gum: a woman with dark skin, dark hair, and blue eyes. Aside from her identity, anthropologists were also able to identify the meal she previously had before snacking on the gum which is duck and hazelnuts.
Scientists have finished sequencing the Neanderthal genome as early as 2010 and that led them to the discovery that Neandertals were interbreeding with modern humans and this provides the answer to the mystery of how the Neanderthals were 'wiped out'.
A couple of years ago, a new study states that Denisovans have disappeared about 50,000 years ago but was able to pass some of their genes to Homo sapiens. As a matter of fact, Denisovan DNA can be found in the genes of modern humans in Asia and Pacific Islands and about 5% of the residents of Papua New Guinea show remnants of their ancestors breeding with Denisovans. Scientists were also able to discover that Tibetans also possess Denisovan traits which can explain why Sherpas are able to weather high altitudes. Scientists were able to unearth Denisovan bones back in 2010 and through genetic analysis, it is found that Denisovans are an 'enigmatic offshoot' of the Neanderthals. Fossilized remains of Denisovans were found only in the Denisova cave in Russia and in Tibet.
Last year, anthropologists were able to discover a new species of ancient humans on the island of Luzon in the Philippines which they aptly named Homo luzonensis. The species was thought to live between 50,000 and 67,000 years ago.
As science of anthropology continues to progress, so are the ways humans understood their origins and scientists are hopeful that as we learn more about who we are and we came to be, we get to appreciate our environment and realize we are not above nature but a part of it.
