Did all the humans originate in Africa?

Question

So am I African too?

Answer 1

The first well-documented hominids were the australopithecines. They were found in eastern Africa (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, etc.) and in South Africa. There were several different species of australopithecines. Lucy, perhaps the most famous fossil, was an Australopithecus afarensis from East Africa.

The genus Homo started with Homo habilis, which was also found in East Africa. Next came Homo erectus, which (surprise, surprise) was also found in Africa.

They lived for over 1 million years and did nifty things like make fire. They were the first fossil hominid to leave Africa, and we can see a clear spread into Europe and Asia. But it's not like they said, "Gee, this Africa place sucks ... I'm outta here." It was a long, slow population spread, and many of them STAYED in Africa too.

After them came Homo sapiens, who of course now live everywhere. Here's where some anthropologists are in conflict: Some think that Homo sapiens evolved in East Africa and then spread throughout the world, replacing H. erectus. Others think that H. erectus gradually evolved into H. sapiens throughout the Old World (this would mean that it was quite a large population, with gene flow spreading from Africa to Indonesia to China). Both sides have compelling evidence, but no side has been completely able to disprove the other.

But no matter how you look at it, yes, humans came from Africa originally. And no, you are NOT African. That's a cultural/ethnic identification more than anything else, and you don't qualify.

Answer to Jim Z:

Yes, miocene apes DID live in Eurasia. However, apes were confined to africa by the time of the hominid split (roughly 7 million years ago).

I did not mention several fossil species because a) this was a brief synopsis, and b) many are new/heavily disputed. For example, some anthropologists consider Homo rudolfensis to be a separate species; most consider them to be part of Homo habilis. Your so-called "Homo georgicus" is not generally accepted. Most anthropologists recognize it as clearly being Homo erectus (or Homo ergaster, for "splitters .. ", but Homo ergaster is simply a division that some use to separate Asian from African H. erectus. It's unwarranted, in my opinion.)

Also, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that either Australopithecines or Homo habilis migrated out of Africa. None.

How is it racist to say that humans originated in Africa, when the fossil evidence shows that the earliest hominid fossils (for millions of years) were found in Africa?? I would say that it's far more racist to insist that humans did NOT originate in Africa, in spite of all of the fossils found there.

You may be a "so-called geologist" (two can play at that game), but you're clearly not an expert in human evolution.

Answer 2

Not necessarily. In my opinion, the out of Africa is preached like a faith. Darwin predicted our ancestors would come from Africa since the closest living relatives, chimps and gorillas were from there and since then many in the scientific community have been trying to prove him right. It turns out that he may have been mistaken even if it was a logical conclusion. First you would have to define human and since our origin involves a series of species which probably lived in multiple continents, you have to specify a time as well and even then you could not get a reliable answer because we simply don't have enough evidence. In the Miocene (approximately 12 million years ago), apes moved out of Africa and flourished in Eurasia. Our ancestor was probably one of these Eurasian apes. Apparently some of those apes moved back to Africa and evolved into Astralopithecines which may have been ancestral to us. These Australopithecines migrated out of Africa into Asia again (i.e Homo Georgicus) some two million years ago. These were obviously much earlier than the previous poster suggested. They likely evolved from Homo Habilis or Rudolphensis in my opinion. The oldest modern human fossil is apparently from Africa, again very dependent on definition, but this is no way proves they were not also in Asia at the time. I am a geologist and I understand why it is so rare to have fossil exposures of a certain age and exposures of the right age are very rare in Asia. Africa, especially around the great rift valley has ideal conditions so it may simply be that Africa is more suited to leaving appropriate fossils. I can't help but think that a lot of the zeal for having humans originate out of Africa is racist in origin, overt or subconcious. For example, there may be a desire to say that caucasions evolved from Africans and hence caucasions would be more evolved and superior. In my opinion that is a rediculous theory and perhaps not all ascribe to it. I suspect most of the previous posters were just repeating what they had read IMO. And yes you are an African. The previous poster dangled her biological anthropology degree yet she didn't even know about Homo Georgicus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_georgicus) and she suggested that you are not African. If someone born in this country is African American then why couldn't you be. The only difference is that there ancestors were there more recently. In reality there are several races in Africa. ****** were a recent race that reached South Africa around the same time as the Europeans. They conquered and took the land from pigmys and bushmen that were there before them, relatively recently. Finally, Africa is not a ethnic or racial category. It is a continent. Some Anthropologists should get some more schooling IMO.

Answer 3

Yes, the oldest humanoid skeletons ever found date back to over 8 million years old. found in africa but it doesnt mean our origin is from Africa. İn these days lands were different and there were no different land scapes like now. Besides the answer is
Adam and Havva
From Heaven
To...

all the best

baysan

Answer 4

Yes, the "Out of Africa" theory is supported by the most evidence. Humanity evolved in africa, at and migrated out of Africa a couple fo time, replacing previous migrations. The evidence is that all of the oldest, anatomically modern humans are found in Africa and Africa only.

Answer 5

People think so, yes. But it's just a theory and at any time could be proven wrong. But even so, NO, it does NOT mean that you are African too. Not at all. Say your great great great great great great great grandfather comes from Spain to England and marries an english woman who is part german. And they have children who travel to other countries and so on and so forth. By the time it comes down to you it has been so ... watered down in a sense, that you would no longer be spanish or english or german (unless your family re-connected with those countries somehow ... like your mother marries a spanish english german man) anyway. Do you get what I am trying to say?

Answer 6

I've known this for like 2 years. How is everyone else just now finding this out??Hitler didn't know about that btw. The diff. is my ancestors went to europe where there was less sun and colder climates and got white skin. Blacks' ancestors stayed in the sun and in warmer climates and they stayed black.Blue eyed ppl are also all from a common ancestor.

Answer 7

Dunno. The tale starts is Mesopotamia (spelling?) at least it does in the Bible I guess. If you believe the anecdotal story of Adam and Eve (which is cute and convenient but not true literally) then we all would evolve from one couple. That would tend to prove evolution I guess. Also, would make the Bible stories of Adam and Eve the blond haired folks from the garden sort of hard to correlate with the cavemen (no GEICO pun intended). If God created man why could not have done so on each continent. Maybe we are all Arabs in which I case I am awfully old now and should have blown myself up years ago.

Answer 8

Yes, the oldest human fossils were recorded in Africa, but that does not make you African. Back in the day, people were nomads; traveling to different lands. When they laid claim to a particular land, they adapt their own culture and identity. Therefore, where ever your ancestors laid ground at is YOUR origin. Africa is just where life began.

Answer 9

As this is in the anthropological section, you are probably seeking a serious answer. Yes. All anthropological and forensic evidence suggests that the real 'Adam' ( a composite repository of the genetic pool of all humanity) lived in Africa, and began moving out around 60,000 years ago. They first reached Australia via India. Then, over the next 10,000 years, they moved into central and northeastern Asia, and eventually into America via Alaska, spreading southwards over the next 10,000 years or so. Simultaneous branches moved west from central Asia into Europe. Intensive research into DNA Markers of modern populations bears out this theory. So yes, we can all be African, if we want to be...

Answer 10

From the historical stand point of the Bible, we all originated from the Iraq area. The garden of Eden was between the Tigris and Euphrates River which still exist today and go around the country of Iraq. There isn't enough proof to be certain that the African remains you speak of are the first humans.