Rewriting of Human Origins, Ongoing in East Asia

I think there is mounting evidence for Model C, the trellis model of evolution:

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Out-of-Africa versus the multiregional hypothesis

Broadly speaking, there are two competing hypotheses on the origin of modern humans: the Out-of-Africa hypothesis and the multiregional hypothesis. Both agree that Homo erectus originated in Africa and expanded to Eurasia about one million years ago, but they differ in explaining the origin of modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens). The first hypothesis proposes that a second migration out of Africa happened about 100,000 years ago, in which anatomically modern humans of African origin conquered the world by completely replacing archaic human populations (Homo sapiens; Model A). The multiregional hypothesis states that independent multiple origins (Model D) or shared multiregional evolution with continuous gene flow between continental populations (Model C) occurred in the million years since Homo erectus came out of Africa (the trellis theory). A compromised version of the Out-of-Africa hypothesis emphasizes the African origin of most human populations but allows for the possibility of minor local contributions (Model B).

https://www.nature.com/scitable/content/out-of-africa-versus-the-multiregional-hypothesis-6391

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Yes, everyone is a mix of a mix of a mix going back a million years.

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Exactly, which is what makes Out of Africa misleading. It is not at all a tree structure in human origins (e.g. Model D), nothing like that at all.

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And Model C really blurs what it means to be human. Yes there were many human species over this time period all over the world that intermixed a great deal. Some had brow ridges and some had globular brains but it didn’t deter them from having a lot of sex.

@swamidass:
What does option C look like? Isn’t seperation by large distances a problem for gene flow?

So how does “continuous gene flow” happen when the different groups are in different continents? Or am i misreading something here?

I dont think sex is the problem. What is required is

  1. isolation of a group long enough to evolve unique features.
  2. Then migration by same group over long distances, sharing their genes along the way.

Repeat a huge no: of times… (each one of those arrows would have to be migration of a group for the genes to be shared)…
Its a little mind boggling.

New paper released today:

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