Philip Guelpa28 May 2023

• https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/29/tsxp-m29.html

Newly published research appearing in the journalNature(Ragsdale, A. P. et al., “A weakly structured stem for human origins in Africa,”Nature[2023]) proposes a new interpretation regarding the origin of our species—Homo sapiens.

The current dominant theory holds thatHomo sapiensevolved from a single, local population of a previous species of the genusHomosomewhere in Africa, between roughly 300,000 and 100,000 years ago. According to this scenario, the new species then spread widely, eventually replacing the other existing species of genusHomo. However, the relatively small number of human fossils known from Africa and the lack of ancient DNA during that time period have made a more precise tracing of the evolution of modern humans problematic. The new interpretation, based primarily on detailed genetic studies of recent populations, posits thatHomo sapiensemerged from the…