Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals from Africa and a southern route into Asia.

ABSTRACT: Despite broad consensus on Africa as the main place of origin for anatomically modern humans, their dispersal pattern out of the continent continues to be intensely debated. In extant human populations, the observation of decreasing genetic and phenotypic diversity at increasing distances from sub-Saharan Africa has been interpreted as evidence for a single dispersal, accompanied by a series of founder effects. In such a scenario, modern human genetic and phenotypic variation was primarily generated through successive population bottlenecks and drift during a rapid worldwide expansion out of Africa in the Late Pleistocene. However, recent genetic studies, as well as accumulating archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence, challenge this parsimonious model. They suggest instead a "sou

SUBMITTER: Reyes-Centeno H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4034217 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature