Why Africa is regarded as cradle of humankind

1. FOSSILS
 Archeological evidence in all continents of the world
agree that Africa is the home of mankind as the
earliest/ oldest hominids remains such as
Australopithicus and the Homo Habilis.
 Remains of these hominids were discovered in a many
African Early Stone Age historical sites such as Taung
in South Africa, Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Lake
Turkana in Kenya.

2. Fossils Cont.
 While other continents have also provided fossils only date
as far back as the Middle and Late Stone Age.
 They are therefore not as old as ‘The Taung Child’ found in
South Africa and “ The Turkana Boy “ discovered in Lake
Turkana.
 This could mean that hominids started to cross into other
continents at Homo Erectus stage.
 This is more so that at this stage, the Homo Erectus had
become highly skilled and were able to swim or had
invented canoes.

3. REMAINS OF TOOLS
 Africa is the only continent which provided evidence of stone
used in the Early Stne Age.
 The oldest tools like Oldowan discovered in Africa were the
primitive stone tools used by the Australopithicus and the
Homo Habilis during the Early Stone Age.
 Though Stone Age were also found in Euope, Asia and
Australia. The oldest were Mid Stone Age tools used by
Home Erectus and Homo Sapiens.
 These could have been left by the Middle and Late Stone
Age hominids after they had spread to these other
continents.

4. DNA TESTS
 Scientists also carried out DNA tests on the remains of the
hominids found in all the continents.
 This was done by comparing the gene structure of the
hominids found in different continents of the world.
 The results of the DNA tests revealed that only African
hominids contained the parents genes.
 This meant that other Hominids found outside Africa are off
springs of the Early Stone Age hominids found in Africa.
 This is so because they appear to have inherited the genes
from the African hominids