Briefly describe the two competing theories regarding the origin of Homo sapiens and its distributional expansion from its origin in Africa. What does the genetic data say about these two hypothesis, which genes are most useful for these analyses and why? Given a large section of a genome, say a complete chromosome, how could you locate genes? Given a large section of a gene, say a complete exon, how could you determine reading frame? Solution 1. There are many competing therapies for the origin of Homo sapiens. Two such theories are Multi-regional hypothesis and Out of Africa 2 model. Multi-regional Hypothesis: The multi-regional hypothesis argues that our early hominid ancestors, including Homo ergaster and Homo heidelbergensis, migrated out of Africa and thus the evolution of modern humans took place in different parts of the world, a process termed regional continuity. This theory places great emphasis on the notion of steady evolutionary alterations or changes that happen in different regions and produce diverse variations of the species. Evolution of this kind is kept at a regular rate due to an amalgamation of cultural progress and ‘gene flow’ or interbreeding, thus keeping all lineages evolving at the same time. This process is characterized as parallel evolution, which suggests a subtle morphological resemblance between populations of species who are geographically separated. Out of Africa 2 model: It is widely recognized among both archaeological and anthropological academics that archaic Homo populations did leave Africa in an initial phase of globalisation, called the Out of Africa 1 model. Following this, the population replacement hypothesis maintains that modern humans evolved in Africa from the ancestral hominids that did not travel out of this continent in the first stage of global colonisation. It is then argued in this model that once evolved as anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens travelled out of Africa to explore, colonise and rapidly replace the archaic Homo population. This movement suggests a second wave of hominid species emerging from Africa, thus the title: the Out of Africa 2 model..

1. Briefly describe the two competing theories regarding the origin of Homo sapiens and its
distributional expansion from its origin in Africa. What does the genetic data say about these
two hypothesis, which genes are most useful for these analyses and why? Given a large section
of a genome, say a complete chromosome, how could you locate genes? Given a large section of
a gene, say a complete exon, how could you determine reading frame?
Solution
1. There are many competing therapies for the origin of Homo sapiens. Two such theories are
Multi-regional hypothesis and Out of Africa 2 model.
Multi-regional Hypothesis: The multi-regional hypothesis argues that our early hominid
ancestors, including Homo ergaster and Homo heidelbergensis, migrated out of Africa and thus
the evolution of modern humans took place in different parts of the world, a process termed
regional continuity. This theory places great emphasis on the notion of steady evolutionary
alterations or changes that happen in different regions and produce diverse variations of the
species. Evolution of this kind is kept at a regular rate due to an amalgamation of cultural
progress and ‘gene flow’ or interbreeding, thus keeping all lineages evolving at the same time.
This process is characterized as parallel evolution, which suggests a subtle morphological
resemblance between populations of species who are geographically separated.
Out of Africa 2 model: It is widely recognized among both archaeological and anthropological
academics that archaic Homo populations did leave Africa in an initial phase of globalisation,
called the Out of Africa 1 model. Following this, the population replacement hypothesis
maintains that modern humans evolved in Africa from the ancestral hominids that did not travel
out of this continent in the first stage of global colonisation. It is then argued in this model that
once evolved as anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens travelled out of Africa to explore,
colonise and rapidly replace the archaic Homo population. This movement suggests a second
wave of hominid species emerging from Africa, thus the title: the Out of Africa 2 model.