Emily Jorgenson

ANTH1020

Dr. Potter

Modern Human Origins Research Paper

Most of us have heard about early humans, such as Neanderthals and famous

fossil findings like “Lucy,” but how much do we know about ourselves? Where did the

first modern humans come from? Modern humans like ourselves have been around for

thousands of years - but with so many years in between now and when we first

appeared, it is hard to say exactly how it happened. There are two current theories on

how modern humans came to be: the Regional Continuity Theory - also known as the

Multiregional Evolution Theory, and Replacement Theory - also known as the Out of

Africa Theory (Wong, 2001). Both of these have a great deal of evidence supporting

them, but only one theory can be correct.

Let’s begin by looking at what each theory entails. First of all, what is the

Regional Continuity Theory? This theory was proposed by Milford Walpoff of The

University of Michigan, and it states that modern humans evolved from pre-modern

humans living in the same region. There are 3 major regions: Europe, Africa, and Asia;

so they believe that modern humans all evolved from pre-modern humans
independently of each other within these regions, then bred with each other to create

one species of modern human (Wong, 2001).

In order to have a solid theory, we need evidence to back it up. The Regional

Continuity Theory has just that. With current technology, scientists have been able to

sequence not only our DNA but the DNA of pre-modern human species in some cases

as well. This is not an easy feat - DNA disappears over time, but we have been lucky

enough to sequence the DNA of species such as Neanderthals and the Denisovans.

With the ability to see the genomes of these species came discoveries - we learned that

some populations of modern humans today contain 1-4% of Neanderthal DNA, and

there are even some who have Denisovan DNA. Because of this, we know for a fact

that modern humans and these various species of pre-modern humans bred with each

other and make up at least a small part of humans today, thus supporting the Regional

Continuity Theory (Dorey, 2020).

The other current popular theory of how modern humans came to be is called

Replacement Theory. This theory was proposed by Chris Stringer and Peter Andrews,

and it states that modern humans all originate from Africa and evolved from one species

of pre-modern human 200,000 years ago: Homo erectus. Modern humans then started

to replace pre-modern humans in other regions by way of out-competing them and

exterminating them.

This theory is the most widely accepted of the two in the scientific community,

and a key factor in this is the amount of genomic evidence to back it up (Modern

Humans, 2016). One example of this is an ancient woman scientists have dubbed
“Mitochondrial Eve.” They had discovered that mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, can be

recovered easily from fossil findings compared to regular DNA and is passed on through

matrilineal family lines only - making a daughter’s mtDNA the same as her mother’s,

grandmother’s, and so on. The mtDNA found in us today can be traced back to one

woman: Mitochondrial Eve, who lived between 50,000-500,000 years ago. But why only

one woman? Scientists believe that there was some event going on during that time that

made the human population scarce, and Eve was one of the only women to survive.

With that, she happened to become the source of all modern humans. This would also

explain why her mtDNA lives on within every woman (Modern Humans, 2016). Because

of this, the discovery of Mitochondrial Eve supports the Replacement Theory.

Another piece of evidence that supports the Replacement Theory is fossil

evidence called “skull-mapping.” Skull-mapping involves the measurements and genetic

testing of skulls. When scientists mapped the skulls of ancient humans from around the

world, they were able to find that the most variability and diversity in skulls lied within

the population of Africa; whereas other ancient human skulls from around the world

didn’t vary much at all with others in their same region in comparison with Africa

(Modern Humans, 2016). This piece of evidence therefore supports the Replacement

Theory, because if small groups of humans branched out of their main population in

Africa there wouldn’t be as much variation because of a limited gene pool, and there

would be more variation in Africa because a larger population means a larger gene pool

and more diversity.

While both of these theories have substantial evidence and are very convincing, I

think that the Replacement Theory holds up better than the Regional Continuity Theory.
I found through my research that there was more substantial evidence and resources

for the Replacement Theory in comparison to the Regional Continuity Theory, and

evidence is a key factor here. I also think the premise of the Regional Continuity Theory

is more far-fetched than that of the Replacement Theory - the chances of evolution from

different pre-modern humans in different areas to get the same species of modern

human, even with gene flow, seems like a slim chance because they all have very

different origins. Then there is also the chance of these things happening during the

same time period - which seems even slimmer. Even though these pre-modern humans

had thousands and thousands of years to travel to each other, I can’t imagine that

happening often enough to have the entire population of pre-moderns evolve into one

species that is 99% the same, and this isn’t normally how speciation works anyway. The

Replacement Theory seems more solid in the fact that a group of modern humans

evolved from only one species of pre-modern human in the same region during the

same time period, and that’s why I think it is the most correct of the two theories.

Works Cited
1. Wong, K. (2001, January 29). The Modern Human Origins Morass. Retrieved
April 26, 2021, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-modern-
human-origins/

2. Evolution of Modern Humans. (2016, June 13). Retrieved April 26, 2021, from
https://www.yourgenome.org/stories/evolution-of-modern-humans

3. Dorey, F. (2020, January 20). When and Where Did Our Species Originate?
Retrieved April 26, 2021, from https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-
evolution/when-and-where-did-our-species-originate/