Thread: Multi-regional v Single origin.

Wikipedia's Multiregional hypothesis and Single origin hypothesis.

The multi-regional hypothesis suggests that each group of modern humans evolved almost independently from each other from about 1.5 million years ago with a certain amount of interbreeding between the groups to explain why we are still very similar. The single origin hypothesis which is the most popular of the two, suggests that Homo sapiens started to move out of Africa between 100,000 years ago and 80,000 years ago moving out across the world replacing and not interbreeding with Homo species already there.

There are other theory's as well, such as the Polygenism theory and Hybrid-origin theory although there seem to be little or no evidence for them. So seeing as there are many people here who seem to be quite knowledgeable about biology and evolotion in particular, i would like to hear your opinion on the various theory's. Thank you.

There is a new study out that compared a sample of 200 skulls using various cranimetric measurements as well as genetic markers. This study favours the single Origin theory as there was insignicant differences between the skulls as well as the genetic markers. However skull measurements are influenced by a wide spectrum of genetic information,as well as the environment. The debate is still going on and will not be resolved until further genetic research is done to determine which genes controls which skull measurement.

The current scientific paradigm is definitely in favour of the single origin hypothesis. The most important reason being the family tree re-construction based on the mitochondrial gene. Evidence suggests that all mitochondrial lineages converged on a single root, the so called mitochondrial eve.

This indicates that the human family arose as a single genetic lineage in Africa and it happened within the last 200K years.

I believe that the multi regional hypothesis has fallen out of favour in light of this genetic evidence. There is no hard evidence for a multi regional origin.