Human evolution – the movement out of Africa.

Humans evolved in Africa. We arose as a mutation in a group of primates that was to give rise to the Chimps. Our DNA is only 1% different to that of our brother/sister chimps.

We are really a third group of chimps. We have only existed as Homo sapiens for a mere 200,000 years. That is so recent that evolution has had very little time to operate on us. We are all one species and the differences between us are slight.

At the beginning we were one of a number of humans. Unfortunately the other human species all died out. I wonder what the religious amongst us would have made of it if there were a number of human species around today. It would be hard to deny that we are animals and harder to suggest we are ‘God’s chosen’.

Early on in our evolution there was a global catastrophe caused by the eruption of Lake Toba caused a thousand year cold winter for the planet killing most humans off. We were down to a mere 150,000.

The hunter/gatherers moved into Europe only a mere 40,000 years ago. DNA evidence suggests that the whole of the diverse European cultures originated from a mere 300 individuals.

The movement into America is even more incredible. The hunters crossed the Beringia Strait land-bridge and worked their way down the coast. DNA evidence shows that the whole of the native American tribes originated from a mere thirty individuals. They must have been very daring.