Where Did Humans Come From? Study Challenges Singular Origin Theory Of Evolution

Did human evolution begin at a single point? A new study that focuses on genetic modelling from across the world states that humans came from multiple places. In the study published in Nature on May 17, scientists claimed that the idea of a single location being the birthplace of humanity was inherently flawed.

"Decades of study of human genome variation have suggested a predominantly tree-like model of recent population divergence from a single ancestral population in Africa," the study states.

"It has been difficult to reconcile this finding with the fossil and archaeological records of human occupation across the vast African continent," the study added.

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Finding the origin of humanity

Genomes of nearly 300 people from different ancestral backgrounds were studied for the investigation purposes, some going back a million years. Even after that, they weren't able to ascertain one single point of humanity's origin.

Instead, the study's findings suggest that there ought to be at least two populations from where humanity could have originated - Stem1 and Stem2.

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The research team from the University of Wisconsin, University of California, Davis, Baylor College of Medicine, Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and McGill University in Quebec, found that both Stem1 and Stem2 populations originated in Africa, but not together.

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Researchers say that it was hundreds of thousands of years ago before the populations began mixing and the two groups merged to kick off the origination point of a new group of people based in Africa.

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Computer modelling was used to understand how human DNA spread across time and throughout Africa. While it's unclear where the Stem1 and Stem2 originated from, but scientists say that Stem1 and Stem2 DNA survived and continued to influence ancestry as recently as 25,000-years-ago.

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The study also suggests that an "archaic hominin ghost population" could have contributed to migration events and could have contributed to genetic data.

What do you think about this potential peek into the origins of humanity? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.