We’re Only Human
On Sunday the Discovery Channel broadcast a show about human evolution entitled The Real Eve. The show covered the “Out of Africa” theory that states that all humans came from a single ancestor (the Original Eve) in Africa. These modern humans then migrated out of Africa and spread the globe.
While I didn’t get to see the show, get donkey!’s Chicago correspondent, Marc, did and we started discussing Human evolutionary theory and the Neandertal in particular.
The pesky Neandertal has always posed a problem in chain of Human evolutionary Biology. Central to this is the question of whether they were human or another species of hominid that simply went extinct. In 1997 a survey of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the Neandertal was conducted, and the findings suggested that we (Homo Sapiens) did not share DNA with the Neandertal. This and other mtDNA studies strengthen the Out of Africa theory. In fact, I would argue that Out of Africa, or Original Eve, is now largely accepted as “The” theory for the evolution of modern humans.
As I mentioned before, I have a degree in Anthropology. In the years since I have graduated college, I had forgotten that there was another theory that had a strong following. This theory was termed “Multiregional Continuity” (MRC) and its supporter hold the view that Homo erectus (not modern humans) migrated out of Africa somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million years ago. The disparate populations of H. Erectus eventually evolved into Homo sapiens.
With the preponderance of mtDNA evidence, this theory now seems unlikely, but back then it was plausible. In fact, I have to admit I wrote a paper supporting it. My argument was based on the work Erik Trinkaus with the Neandertal fossil record. Trinkaus believes the MRC postulate is correct and feels Neandertals are human ancestors. There are, in fact, paleoanthropolgist that still support MRC (Milford Wolpoff is probably the most well known proponent)
Other than the fact that this stuff fascinates me (and is also a nice break from discussion of politics), what strikes me is how fast this field is changing, and how things that were accepted only seven years ago are no longer considered part of the dialogue. It makes me wonder what Human Evolutionary theories that we currently hold as near fact, or common sense (as we now do with mtDNA), will seem implausible, if not silly, in five, ten, or even twenty years from now. This is an especially interesting question when you consider that anthropologists, out of a desire to believe humans arose in Europe, fell for the Piltdown Man theory from 1912 until the hoax was exposed in 1953. Hopefully, no one will be fooled like that again, but it is interesting to think about what discoveries lie on the horizon.
For more on this topic, I highly recommend Donald Johanson’s site, Becoming Human. Johanson, who discovered Lucy, the first Australopithecus afarensis fossil, has a lot of good information on the site, as well as an excellent Flash-based documentary that outlines all of the theories of Human evolution. It is well worth a couple of hours on a rainy afternoon.
Wow. I mean, just wow. The Becoming Human site may just be the most impressive website I have ever seen. Beautifully presented and the wealth of information is astounding. I just dumped a good hour on there without a blink and it isn’t even raining. Hell, they even use the term “Bonobo.”
I’d like to see the site expand a bit more on some topics as opposed to focusing it’s efforts towards an attempt at a brief comment on every conceivably related topic but this is a whiny nitpick on my part at best. It’s a shame we can’t have more resources like this one. Wow, what a website. And I haven’t even commented on the theories presented there…
Comment by Marc | 4/23/2002
Johanson, most likely, isn’t going to give it all up on the site. He wants you to buy his books after all!
I agree that some parts of the site could use some more “meat”, but it’s tough to boil down 49 or so years of constantly changing theory into an all inclusive website. Hell, he (and myself as well) probably mischaracterizes MRC as a single theory. There are a lot of diverging opinions under the MRC umbrella. I am sure the same thing can be said for Out of Africa theory.
Comment by Rob | 4/23/2002
OK, I suppose this doesn’t add an incredible amoutn to the conversation, but Trinkaus taught the evolution course I took at Wash U. I think his research is more impressive than his teahing style. Good class, though.
Comment by Lori | 4/23/2002